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CHESTER 



(AND ITS VICINITY,) 



DELAWARE COUNTY, 



PENNSYLVANIA; 



#nualo§ical ^kdtljcs of $mt dh Jfamilies, 

JOHN HILL MARTIN, Esq. 



' ' 1877. 



rmi.ADKi.PHiA : 

•I) liY WM. H. I'lLl-; ,t SONS, 
I. 422 WALNUT SlKIiliT. 



. ( l.imitcJ luiilioii ii/'joo Cofics/or Stibscribi- 



PREFACE 



CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS. 



In a work of this kind there are, of 
course, some errors, which are here 
corrected, so far as they have been 
detected, viz: 

On page I o, line 5, column i, "Pn," 
ought to be Per; and in same column, 
" Leals Lauson" should be NealsLaer- 
son. At p. 24, 1. II, c. 2, omit " W." 
after Richard. P. 30, 1. 41, c.2, John 
Austin McDowell, not "J. McD." 
P. 34, 1. 29, c. I, "Alfred," should 
be Algernon. Edward Minshall, men- 
tioned on p. 45, is not the present 
Coroner. I went to school with Ed- 
ward and William Anderson Minshall ; 
the latter is the Coroner, and his fa- 
ther's name was Thomas. P. 55, 1. 5, 
c. 2, " 1864," should be 1684. P. 70, 
c. 2, "ronn" and '• ronne" should be 
come. P. 73, 1. 41, c. 2, "Jones" 
should be James. P. 96, 1. 15, c. i, 
' ' Levi Bird, ' ' should be Gustavus Cleg- 
gett Bird. On p. 138, 2 c. 12 1. from 
bottom, ' ' letter, ' ' should be latter. My 
article on pp. 138^ 139 and 140, was 
written previous to 1870. Since then 
I made further research on the subject of 
the vote of the New York Delegation in 
Congress, on July 4, 1776. In Foi'ces' 
Archives, (5th Series,) i vol. 117, Jo- 
seph Hewes, in a letter, on July 8, 
1776, says: " I send you the Declara- 
tion enclosed ; all the Colonies voted 
for it except New York ; that Colony 
was prevented by an old instruction." 
And in Austin s Life of Elhridi:;e Ger- 



ry, p. 202, in a letter to General War- 
ren, on July 5, 1776, Gerry writes: 
"All the- Colonies, except New York, 
whose Delegates were not empowered 
I to give either an affirmative or nega- 
tive voice, united in a declaration." 
These letters seem strong cotemporary 
authority against my views as express- 
ed ; but it is singular that if, as John 
Adams says in a letter to his wife on 
July 3, 1776, "Yesterday * * a 
resolution passed, without one dissent- 
ing Colony, that these Colonies are and 
of right ought to be free and indepen- 
dent States," &c., that the New York 
Delegation who voted for the substance 
on the 2d, should withdraw and not 
vote for the form on the 4th ? If the 
letters of Gerry and Hewes tell the 
truth, the Minutes of Congress, as 
printed, are a lie, and the statements 
of Governor McKean, are those of a 
dotard. A careful reading of the letter 
and resolution (see Forces' Archives'), 
of the Assembly of New York of July 
nth, and their approval of the Decla- 
ration before receiving the notice from 
Congress under the resolution, show 
nothing to indicate that their Delega- 
tion did not vote, but rather the con- 
trary, and was a cordial approval of 
what had been done. 

It is now believed by historians, that 
a copy of the Declaration was signed 
on July 4, 1776, and that the paper 
will vet be found among the Govern- 



1' ]| E V A C E. 



menl Archives ; searches are to be 
made with that hope. The copy of 
the Declaration in Jefferson's hand- 
writing, in possession of the American 
Philosophical Society at Philadelphia, 
is not the original, but a copy sent 
by Jefferson to Richard Henry Lee, of 
Virginia, and on the death of Lee, was 
found among his papers and presented 
to the Society ; it was not the paper 
read in Congress; an examination of 
it shows that it was a copy made after 
amendments were made by Franklin 
and others ; which amendments are 
noted on it, but written by Jefferson. 

Mr. Jefferson says positively, that 
the Declaration was signed on the 
4th. The printed copy issued that 
day, does not state that it was the 
unanimous Declaration, but the one 
printed and issued after the signing of 
the engrossed copy, now in possession 
of the Government, had in it the word 
unanimous. If the New York Delega- 
tion did not vote, they quietly con- 
sented to the proceedings of Congress, 
who were, no doubt, assured that that 
Colony would assent to their action. 
Could the copy above referred to be 
found, it would settle all doubt on the 
subject. 

Page 103, Elizabeth Cranston is sup- 
posed to have been a daughter of Wal- 
ter Marten, her first husband being 
Joseph Baldwin, (see pp. 106, 479,) 
but this is manifestly an error, as Wal- 
ter Martin, in his will, names his daugh- 
ter Elizabeth Marten, after Joseph 
Baldwin's death. Elizabeth Marten, 
I have since discovered, married Ed- 
ward Whitaker, prior to 1720. Wil- 
liam Clayton, the son-in-law, purchased 
the homestead of Walter Marten from 
Daniel Williamson, surviving execu- 
tor, and obtained a release, Jan. 23, 
1719-20, from the other heirs, to wit, 



Stephen Martin, Adam Buckley and 
wife Ann, Edward Whitaker and Eliza- 
beth his wife, and Sarah Martin. At 
p. 154, respecting the Nethermarks, it 
may be added, that Christian Nether- 
mark, in her will, dated Sept. 15, 1764, 
proven Dec. 15, 1767, mentions her 
son Luke; daughter Elizabeth, wife of 
Lawrence Frederick; daughter Re- 
becca Taylor and grand-daughter Chris- 
tiannaTaylor; son Matthias, deceased; 
sister Dorothy, and brother-in-law 
Daniel Culin. Thos. Taylor, of Rid- 
ley, died intestate, and letters were 
granted to Rebecca Taylor and Luke 
Nethermark, May 20, 1764. 

Page 177, line 12, column i, Levis, 
not " Lewis." At p. 201, I have said 
the Masonic bowl and pitcher were 
given to my grandfather, which is an 
error. They were presented by my 
grandfather, William Smith, Jr., of 
Philadelphia, to the Lodge No. 69, 
and when the Charter was surrendered 
and the property of the Lodge at Ches- 
ter passed over to the Grand Lodge, 
No. 69, gave the bowl and pitcher to 
my father. The lines inscribed on the 
bowl and pitcher, as given on p. 200, are 
slightly erroneous; they should read : — 

" The world is in pain 

Our secrets to gain 
But still let them wonder & gaze on, 

Yox they ne'er can divine 

The Word nor the Sign 
Of a Free & an accepted Mason." 

P. 180, •' Supreme Executive Coun- 
cil," should read. Provincial Council. 
P. 181, "Smith Futhey," a Commis- 
sioner of Purchases, should be, Samuel 
Futhey. P. 227, 1. 26, c. i, " Hud- 
son" should be Hodgson. P. 266, 
" Francis Malin" should be Thomas 
M. P. 267, 1. 5, c. 2, for "abrother," 
read a nephew. P. 272, "1750," 
should be J 720. 



P ]{ E F A C K. 



Page 335, in list on 2d c^olumn, Lu- 
cius "Burrows," should be Barrows. 
P. 375, omit the "M" in Col. Joseph 
Willcox's name. P. 376, in loth line 
from bottom of first column, for "and 
regiments," read, in the regiment. 
The name of " R. W. Flickwir," in 
page 423, should be, probably, Richard 
Flower Flickwir. In a note at page 462, 
on the last line of second column are 
the words "Jeuffro Armgard Printz," 
no doubt Jeuffro, should be Jungfro, the 
Swedish word for " the young girl." 
And the words "alias Pappegoya," 
ought not to follow her name ; because, 
after she married John Pappegoya, the 
Governor of New Sweden, in 1653, she 
would no longer be 2iJungfro. P. 494, 
Benanuel Lownes was married in 1 744, 
not " 1774." 

I neglected to insert at p. 282, the 
following : — Lavinia Roberts, daughter 
of James and Sally (Broom), m. Thos. 
Deighton, of Philadelphia. Helen 
Broom (see p. 284), dau. of Jacob and 
Cornelia, m. (ist) William T. Hacker, 
of Philadelphia, (2d) Robert Smith, 
brewer, May 4, 1862, and had issue, 

Helen R., b. 1863 ; Florence J., 

^. Jan. 20, 1865. Jacob Broom, M. C, 
died at Washington, D. C, Nov. 18, 
1864, in his 54th year, and his remains 
buried in the Congressional Cemetery. 

In writing of Mr. and Mrs. Elie 
Charlier, at p. 46, I omitted to give 
the names of their children, who are, 
I. Elie Stacey, 2. Winona, 3. Jeannie, 
4. Marie, 5. Van Dycke, and 6. Daniel 
Howard Charlier. 

Henry Hollingsworth, was Coroner 
of Chester County in 1708, his name 
is omitted in the list on page 447. 

Randall Vernon's name should be 
included in the list of Justices of the 
Peace; commissioned in 1693. 

In writing of Mrs. Jane Bartram, at 



p. 331, it should have been stated that 
she, Jane Martin, was married to Alex- 
ander Bartram, on Jan. 14, 1767. By 
reference to page 330, it will be seen 
that Mrs. Mary Martin, died Dec. 11, 
1785. I do not know Avhether this 
was the mother or step-mother of my 
grandfather. Dr. William Martin ; the 
family have always thought she was his 
mother, but later research seem to in- 
dicate that she was his step- mother, 
for in 2d Pa. Archives, 2 series, p. 198, 
is the marriage of John Martin to Mary 
Raine, on July 22, 1767. Dr. William 
Martin was born Sept. 2, 1765 ; so if 
this John Martin was his father, Mary 
Raine was his step-mother. In the 
same list of marriages, it appears that 
John Martin m. Ann Tate, Sept. 5, 
1 761, and another John Martin /;/. 
Mary Van Luviney, Oct. 21, 1761, 
this latter marriage, if that of my 
grand-parents, would indicate that the 
Mrs. Mary Martin, who died Dec. 11, 
1785, was grandfather's mother; but 
if Ann Tate was the first wife of my 
g. grandfather, John Martin, then his 
two wives are accounted for ; of course 
this is all guess-work as yet, future in- 
vestigation may settle the matter. 

The widow of John Flower, (who 
d. 1737-8,) is subsequently called Mary 
Scarlet ; and at a later date, one Mary 
Raine files accounts as Executrix of 
John Flower. Whether this was the 
one who married John Martin is un- 
certain. She would be advanced in 
years in 1767. It is not strictly cor- 
rect, as stated at page 436, that Wil- 
liam Flower devised his estate to Mary 
Flower, as she ' is not mentioned in 
the Avill , but he gave it to his son-in- 
law, John Flower. 

Referring to page 210, it will be 
found stated, that Judge Crosby's first 
wife was a Miss Culin, her surname 



rRKFACE. 



Elizabeth, ihcy were married Sept. 

1766; she died soon afterwards. 

' Judge's brother Richard (3d), see 

:o(), ^\ho died in 1790, leaving a 

'I ii.-,hter, Elizabeth, probably married 

I -liier Phipps, Dec 12, 1763. 

Mice C'rosb)-. (widow), >//. (ieorge 
Spe.it", March 4, 1771 : see ]). 209. 

Major Sketchley Morton, .see p. 143, 
Mi.irrieil June 19, 1773, H<-'becca, dan. 
"I I Ihn and Mary Taylor. 

Miry Morton w. Charles Justis, 
■ '* M> 1775 J Sarah Morton, no 
< ■■ it the daughter of the Signer, for 
' n I could not account, married 
I' II, 1773, William Grantum, 
P' rlijps of the Ridley fiuiiily of that 
name: seep. 145. For all these mar- 
ri.igcs, see 2 I^a. Archives, 2 series. 
\ iM.-e dates are those of the licenses 
r.oi of the marriages. This volume of 
1I1C \rchives is just out, April 7, 1877, 
xviix h accounts for these additions to 
■ ' llimily sketches. 

e following de.scription of the 

;, Crest and Motto of the family 

oi V E.ST, (Earl Delawarr,) will inter- 

le readers of this work : 

IMS — Quarterly, first and fourth, 

I fe.sse dancettce Sa, for West ; 

id and third, gu, a lion rampant, 

*r, rmed and langued Az, between 

'ig' cro.sses crosslet fitchee in orle, of 

'li' .econd, for Delawarr. Ckkst — 

<> )f a Ducal Coronet Or, a Griffin's 

\\ az, ears and beak gold. Sup- 

Kks — Dexter a Wolf coward, ar, 

jd with a plain collar Or, Sinister, 

;katrice Or, shadowed and scaled 

Motto — Jour de ma vie ; /. e. , 

e brilliancy (day) of my life." 

ling to the taking of John, King 

ranee, a jjrisoner at the battle 

3ictiers. Ste Bur/ee's Armory — 

r ; and Burke'' s Peerage, for Arms 

Mawarr. engraven. 



The following announcement has 
been in many of the American news- 
papers lately : 

'' Married.— i)\\ the nth of Feb., 
1877, at the Russian Chapel, Vienna, 
according to the Russian service, and at 
the house of the American minister, by 
the Episcopal service, G. B.\khimkteff, 
of the Russian diplomatic service, and 
attached to the Russian Embassy at 
London, to M.\KV, daughter of the 
Hon. Edward Fitzgerald Beale, En- 
voy Extraordinary and Minister Plen- 
ipotentiary of the United States to 
Austria." 

Glory, they say, "consists in hav- 
ing your name spelled wrong in the 
newspapers." Mr. Beale's middle 
name is Forbes ; the first name of the 
; groom is given as G. ; the omission to 
' give the first name in full in signatures 
i and in lists of names is all wTong; the 
stranger does not know, whether J. 
i stands for John, Jane, James or Julia. 

On Mar. 12, 1877, Elwood Tyson, 
was elected President of the National 
Bank of Delaware County, in place of 
Crozer, resigned : see p. 268. 

Married at Media, March 15, 1877, 
by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Hare, Annie 
Preston Morris, dau. of Arabella and 
the late Joseph R. Morris, Esq., and 
grand-daughter of the Hon. Edward 
Darlington, to Dr. Rush S. Huide- 
koper, of Meadville, Pa. 

Died, at the residence of James M. 
Willcox, at Ivy Mills, on Sept. 19, 
1 861, Caroline Augusta Bracket. 

Died, Nov. 16, 1865, at the resi- 
dence of Edward Darlington, Media, 
Arabella, widow of Preston Eyre, in 
her 77th year. 

Died at Philadelphia, Mar. 9, 1877, 
in his 30th year, George W. Clyde, 
son of 'Hiomas and Rebecca; see \). 
268. 



PREFACE. 



Dr. Richard Gardiner, a well-known 
physician of Philadelphia, d. March 
22, 1877, aged 84 years i mo. and i 
day, having been born Feb. 21, 1793. 
He was a native of Delaware County, 
and practiced in Darby until 1835, 
when he came to Philadelphia. He 
was a graduate of the University of 
Pennsylvania, and afterwards studied 
Homoeopathy, and graduated from the 
Homoeopathic College in 1848. 

Dr. Gardiner was a member of- the 
Baptist Church, and for two succes- 
sive terms he represented the District 
of Southwark in the Board of Health. 
He m. in 1841, Miss Rice, of Darby, 
who died in 1863, leaving six children, 
one of whom is an eminent physician. 
The Doctor was a son of Dr. William 
Gardiner, and his son. Dr. William A. 
Gardiner, was Surgeon of the 8ist 
Regt. of Pa. Vols., resigned Aug. 5, 
T862, and died not long afterwards, 
after having served with his regiment 
for about a year. There was a Dr. 
Joseph Gardiner in Delaware County, 
in 1779, (see p. 181,) and a Captain 
John Gardiner, (see p. 182.) Gen. 
Patterson, at p. 385, speaks of going 
to school with Mary Gardner, a dau. 
of Capt. Edward Gardner, Jn Spring- 
field, which must have been about 
1804 or 5. 

Died, at his residence at Media, 
Hugh Jones Brooke, in his 71st year. \ 
He was born in Radnor township, i 
Delaware County, Dec. 27, 1805. He 
received a good common school edu- 
caticju. To tlie life of an agricultu- , 
rist lie devoted the greater part of his 
time. In 1843, ^''e was elected to the 
lower branch of the Legislature, and 
in 1849 to the Senate. He was again 
elected to that body in 1868, his term j 
closing with the session of 187 1. ' 

Din-ing the war he was appointed 



: Commissary of Purcliases in Pennsyl- 
vania. He assisted in building up the 
town of Media, and was prominent 
and active in its growth and prosper- 
ity. He was a Director of the Bank 
of Media from the date of its or- 
ganization, and was Vice-President 
of the Pennsylvania Training School 
for Feeble Minded Children. He 
was for 12^ years a Director of the Del- 
aware Mutual Safety Insurance Com- 
pany, and was the organizer of the 
Farmers' Market in Philadelphia, and 
its first President. He was afterwards 
instrumental in the organization and 
establishment of the. Twelfth Street 
Market, and at the time of his death 
was President thereof. In various 
positions through life, he proved him- 
self an estimable and valuable citizen. 
The following is copied from the 
Delaware Coirnty Pape7- and Mail of 
April 3, 1877: 

'■'■Death of a Delaware Countian. — 
\\\ Philadelphia, March 29, 1877, Ed- 
ward S; Sayres, Consul for Brazil and 
Vice-Consul for Portugal, in his 77th 
year. He was the son of Dr. Caleb 
Smith Sayres, once a prominent phy- 
sician of Delaware County, residing 
at Marcus Hook, and like Dr. William 
Martin, died from over-Avork during 
the yellow fever season along the Del- 
aware, in I 798. Mr. Sayres in early 
life went to Brazil, as supercargo of his 
own ship, antl there made the acquaint- 
ance of the Royal family, and attended 
the Emperor Dom Pedro during his 
late visit to the Centennial Exhibi- 
tion. After his return from Brazil, 
Mr. Sayres was in active business as 
an importer in wines, doing a large 
business with the South until the Re- 
bellion. He was for some time Con- 
sul for Denmark, Sweden and Norway. 
1 1 is brother, Matthias Richards Sayres. 



VI 



P R E F A C E. 



was a well-known member of the Bar 
of Delaware County, as were also his 
relatives George Richards Grantham, 
John Richards, Jacob Richards, and 
others. The Sayres are related to the 
Crosbys, Andersons, Richards, Gran- 
thams, and many other prominent 
families in Delaware County. Mr. 
Sayres has left three sons and one 
daughter, one of the sons studied law 
with J. Hill Martin, formerly of this 
city, and is now in his ofifice." 

The following scrap of history, con- 
cerning a well-known Delaware Coun- 
ty family, will interest all my readers: 

John Thomson, the father of the late 
John Edgar Thomson, President of the 
Pennsylvania Railroad, (who died in 
Philadelphia, May 27, 1874, in his 
67th year,) was for several years in the 
service of the great "Holland Land 
Company," in Western Pennsylvania 
and New York. At the close of one 
of his engagements (1793) he encamp- 
ed at Presque Isle, now Erie, Pa., and 
with one assistant, and without other 
tools than usually attend an engi- 
neering expedition, he built the schoon- 
er White Fish, in which he sailed from 
that place for Philadelphia, conveying 
the schooner by teams of oxen around 
the Falls of Niagara to Lake Ontario, 
thence to where Oswego now stands, 
and up a small river to Oneida Lake, 
passing through which, and carrying 
his vessel again by land to the Mohawk, 
he followed that stream to the Hudson, 
and thence to the Atlantic Ocean. 
From this he entered Delaware Wwy 



and reached Philadelphia, when h'is 
schooner was taken to Lidependence 
Square, where it remained until de- 
stroyed by time. This was the first 
vessel that ever passed from Lake Erie 
to New York and Philadelphia. 

John Thomson was a native of Del- 
aware County, and a well-known civil 
engineer. Li the bridge over a small 
run on the Baltimore Turnpike, at 
Pennsdale, theestateof J. Edgar Thom- 
son,, in Springfield township, is a stone 
bearing this inscription : " Built gratis 
by John Thomson, for the Philadel- 
phia, Brandywine and New London 
Turni)ike Company, 181 1." This 
bridge was rebuilt within a few years, 
and the old slab was placed in the 
new structure, which is still known as 
"Thomson's bridge." 

The following privates from Chester, 
were enlisted in Captain John Single- 
ton's Company, from May ist to 8th, 
1758, with their age opposite each 
name. 



Samuel Armitage, 

Charles Bevard, loeaT'cr, 

Thomas Callican, 

Thomas Connolly, 

David Cowpland, 

John Cross, cord2vaincr, 

John Cruthers, stout made, 

Hugh Davise, smith, 

William Foster, 

William Kennedy, lueave?-, 

John Long, 

Edward McSorley, 

Terence Yt.f:fi[y,/ock-pitted, 

John Richeson, 

Patrick Roe, bold-looking, 

John Shannon, cliandlcr , 

Edward Sheppard, red hair, 

David Way, tanner, 

Henry Williams, drummer. 



History of Chester, 



The, precise date of the settlement 
of the old town of Chester is unknown. 
We do know, however, that it was first 
settled by the Swedes, probably about 
the year 1645. Its Swedish name was 
Upland. The Dutch called it Op- 
landt. The Indian name according 
to Campanius was Meco-po-nack-a, and 
finally William Penn, on landing there, 
on Sunday, Oct. 29, 1682, at the re- 
(juest of his friend Pearson, whose first 
name is unknown, gave the town the 
name of Chester, after the city of 
Chester in P2ngland, from which city 
Pearson came — Hazard's A?jnais, 605. 
When I lived in Chester, the inhab- 
itants called it affectionately "Old 
Chester;" now it is incorporated as a 
city, and known as the " City of Ches- 
ter. ' ' I propose to write of old Ches- 
ter, as I knew it previous to i860, 
adding such information, as I can ob- 
tain, of its history since that time. 

Heckewelder in his Indian names, 
(part vi., p. 242, Transactions of the 
Moravian Historical Society,) says, 
" Chester River, (in Delaware Coun- 
ty,) is called in early deeds Macopana- 
fhan, corrupted from Meechoppenack- 
han, signifying, the large potatoe 
stream, /. e. the stream along which 
large potatoes grow," and in a note 
— " Me-cheek and Ma-chive-a, large, 



Hob-he-7iac, potatoes," (on the au- 
thority of Zeisberger. ) The name 
occurs in an Indian deed executed to 
William Penn, 14th day of the Fifth 
month, 1683, ^or lands lying between 
Mannmnk, alias Schuylkill, and Maco- 
panackhan, alias Chester River. The 
Swedes called the stream Upland kill." 
In Smith, Laws of Pa., vol. ii. pp. no, 
III, the Indian name of the spot where 
Chester stands is given as Macopa?ia- 
chan, and Dr. George Smith in his 
History of Delaware County, p. 381, '^ 
gives this as the name of Chester Creek, 
and the name of the place as Mecopa- 
nacha. 

Ebeling in his history of Pennsylva- 
nia says: 

"There was al)out llie mitldle of tliis cen- 
tury, (1650) two Swedish and Finish settle- 
ments, called Upland, and Finland ; the former 
afterwards received the name of Chester," 
(Acrelius, 39,) "none of these settlements, 
however, were of importance, not even except- 
ing Upland, which was made the chief place 
of a Judicial district by the Dutch in 1668." 

Armstrong, says in his introduction 
to the '■^Records of Uplatid Court," 
vol. vii.. Memoirs of the Historical So- 
ciety of Pennsylvania, p. 27 : 

* In referring to authorities, I shall hereafter 
write in the short way, after having given the 
title of a work once — thus, as Dr. Smith states, 
or Hazard, or Clay, <S:c., it M'ill save a useless 
repetition of the titles of the works of different 
historians, and avoid foot notes. 



HISTORY (>!•' ClIESTKU. 



" The earliest mention of Upland as a loca- 
tion in America, occurs in 1648; the name 
might seem rather English than Swedish, were 
it not known that many emigrants came from 
Upland, a province in middle Sweden, on the 
Baltic, to which the natural features of the 
new region bore some resemblance. Upland, 
although not named, was probably one of the 
settlements referred to in 1643, as existing 
lietween the Island of Tinicum and Fort 
Christina. " 

By what title the lands at Upland 
were held by the Swedes is iniknown. 
The royal archives of Sweden were 
destroyed with the palace at Stock- 
holm, in 1697, and the destruction in 
Holland, some years ago, of the doc- 
umentary history of New Netherlands, 
was another great loss to the student 
of Pennsylvania history. Our annals 
prior to the titue of the grant to Penn, 
are very meagre and unsatisfactory, 
but the Swedes had, however, an un- 
doubted Indian title. 

Campanius says, that Upland pos- 
sessed a Fort ; if so, it is quite likely 
that the town grew up around this out- 
])0st in the first place. Ferris, in his 
History of the original settlements on 
the Delaware, suggests, however, that 
the /^^r/ was only a ''Block House," a 
place of refuge and defence, always 
erected in those days near a settle- 
ment. ' 'I'he House of Defence at 
Upland,' is spoken of in 1677, in 
which year it was ordered to be fitted 
up for the uses of the Court. Cam- 
panius says: "At Mocoponaca, (on 
the stream of that name, ) there were 
some houses built, and afterwards a 
fort," see Hazard's Register, vol. i., p. 
181. 'i'he exact language used will be 
found in the Memoirs of the Histori- 
cal Society of Pa., vol. iii., p. 80, in 
the History of New Sweden, by Tho- 
mas Campanius, of Holm, translated j 
b\ IVter S. I)n|)Oii(tau, ],. I,. I)., in 



which it is stated, '' Mecoponacka w 
Upland, was an unfortified place, but 
some houses were built there. There 
was a fort built there sometime after 
its settlement. It is good, even land 
along the river shore. ' ' No doubt the 
' ' Block House ' ' was the fort referred 
to, as P^rris suggests in his history. 

The History of New Sweden, by 
Thomas Campanius, of Holm, was 
compiled from the writings of his 
grandfather, the Rev. John Campa- 
nius, who was born in Frost Hiilt, 
Sweden, in 1600. He arrived at Tin- 
icum in February, 1643, where he 
was chaplain under Governor Printz, 
and returned to Europe in the ship 
S7van, May 13, 1648. He died Sept. 
17, 1683. As he says, some houses 
were built at Upland, he means of 
course that they were erected there 
before he came to this country, or 
during his residence at Tinicmn, so 
we may safely say that Chester was 
first settled about 1645. Campanius 
goes on to state that " a fort was built 
there some time after its settlement," 
all of which occurred prior to 1648. 
See History of Montgojiiery County, by 
Wm. J. Buck, p. 21. Campanius be- 
gan the translation of the Catechism 
in the Z^«/«-Zd'//<7/<? language in 1646, 
being fifteen years before the transla- 
tion and publication of the New Tes- 
tament of John Eliot, into the Indian 
language. The date of the first set- 
tlement of Chester, is rendered more 
certain from the fact, that in 1645, 
when Andreas Hudde, the Dutch Com- 
missary on the Delaware, made his 
examination of the river, he found 
that there were on the same side of the 
river with Fort Christina, and about 
two Dutch miles higher up, some plan- 
tations which continued nearly a mile ; 
but few houses only were built, and 



HISTORY OF ClIESTEK. 



these at a considerable distance from 
"each other. The farthest of these is 
not far from Tinnekonk. (Tinicum. ) 
This last mentioned settlement was no 
doubt Upland, now Chester. 

The first European settlement on the 
Delaware River, was made by the Dutch 
in 1623. The river was known by sev- 
eral different names among the Indians 
— Poutaxaf, Marisqueton, Makeriskit- 
toft, and Makarisk-kiskon, 2 Smith's 
Laws, no. Lenape J Vt/iif^uc A, or the 
rapid stream of the Lenape, also Kit- 
hanne, signifying the main stream of 
the region, {Hekewelder). By the 
Dutch, it was called the Zuydt or 
South River, Prince Hendrick River, 
Charles River, and Nassau River; by 
the Swedes, New Swedeland stream, 
and by the English, Delaware River. 
Campanius says : ' ' The Delaware Bay 
was discovered this year (1606), and 
named after Mons De la Warre, one of 
the captains under Jacques Chartier, 
and that its name was Poiitaxat. ' ' The 
bay has also been called New Port 
Mey, and Godyn's Bay. The receiv- 
ed opinion is, however, that the bay 
and river take their present name from 
Thomas West, Lord De La Warr, who 
is said to have discovered it in the 
year 16 10; and subsequently in 161 8, 
died on board his ship off the mouth 
of the bay. Li Heylin's Cosmogra- 
phy, written in 1648, the river is called 
A 7' as ap ha. 

The Okehockings, was the name of 
the tribe of Indians formerly occupy- 
ing the country in the vicinity of Ches- 
ter, having their lodges on the banks 
of Ridley and Crum Creeks, as will 
appear by reference to a warrant of 
survey, dated loth mo. 15, 1702, 
in the Surveyor General's Office at 
Harrisburg, granting the tribe a reser- 
vation of five hundred acres of land 



near Willistown, Chester County. The 
boundaries of the reservation are given 
in the maps of the early settlements. 
In the minutes of the Commisioners 
of Property, loth mo. 7th and 8th, 
1702, it is stated, that "the Ock- 
anickon, or Crum Creek Indians hav- 
ing been removed from their old hab- 
itation before the prop^^ departure by 
his order, and seated by Caleb Pusey, 
Nicholas Pyle, Nathaniel Newlin, and 
Joseph Baker, on the tract in Chester 
County, formerly laid out to Griffy 
Jones, but now vacant." The names 
of the chiefs of this tribe at that time 
were, Pokhais, Sepopanny, and Mi/tta- 
gooppa: Dr. Smith, pp. 209, 210 and 
note. 

The first Swedish settlers on the 
Delaware, arrived in the river about 
the middle of April, 1638, in two 
ships, "The Key of Kalmar," an 
armed vessel, and a transport called 
the "Bird Griffin," under the com- 
mand of Peter Minuit. They landed 
at a place on the banks of Christiana 
Creek, called "The Rocks," adjacent 
to the city of Wilmington, where they 
erected Fort Christina. The precise 
day of the month of the landing is 
unknown, but it is hoped, that it may 
yet be ascertained. 

The first attempt made by the En- 
glish to effect a settlement on the banks 
of the Delaware, was made in the year 
1640 ; but Dr. Smith, in his history of 
this county, has gone so fully into all 
the details relating to the discovery of 
and settlements made on the river, that 
I need only refer to his excellent work 
for all information the inquiring reader 
may seek for on such subjects. 

Dr. Smith states, p. 50 : " It will be observed 
that in the harangue of the Passaytink Savage 
— (the chief complained that the Swedes stole 
their land, while the Dutch never had taken 



ISTURY OF CHESTER. 



any) — Upland is mentioned as a Swedish set- 
tlement. Tliis was in 164S, and that ' this is 
the first notice of that town under its Swedish 
name on record;' hut, doubtless, one or more 
of the plantations observed by Iluddc, in No- 
vember, 1645, was at that place. It mny also 
be inferred from that harangue, that u]) to that 
time, the Dutch had not made what the speaker 
considered (tn actual settlement.'" 

The Swedes had previously, in 1638, 
purchased from the Indians, the whole 
of the land on the western shore of 
the Delaware from Cape Henlopen to 
Santuko/i (the falls near Trenton). 
In 1655, the Swedish sovereignty in 
America ended. Dr. Smith says : 
'' Deriving its o/i/y title from the sav- 
ages, which is not recognized by the 
laws of nations, no very protracted 
endurance could have been anticipat- 
ed for the colony as a dependency of 
Sweden." These remarks are true 
in the abstract, for discovery, actual 
settlement and native title combined, 
are necessary to give complete domin- 
ion ; yet, it would be well to remem- 
ber, however, that most of the Swe- 
dish titles were confirmed, and that 
ever since the very first settlements 
the Indian titles to the lands in this 
country have been eagerly sought for 
and many tedious negotiations have 
been carried on with the Indians to se- 
cure them. Penn's heirs claimed to 
have acquired certain lands of the 
Indians by the celebrated " Walking!; 
Purchase.'''' See an inquiry into the 
causes of the alienation of the Dela- 
ware and Shawanese Indians, (5v:c., 
printed with Christian Frederick Post's 
Journal, London, 1759, for a full his- 
tory of the Walking Purchase, a list of 
the Indian treaties, and a list of thir- 
teen Indian deeds ; the first one of 
which is dated at New Castle, loth 
mo. 2, 1 68s, for lands from Duck 



Creek to Chester Creek, anil which 
reads : 

" This Indenture wilnesseth that we Paclce- 
na/i, Jackhain, Sikels, Portgiicsott, Jen' is, 
Essepenaick, Felktrug, Foii'ey, Indian kings, 
Sachemakers, right owners of all lands from 
Qiiing Quingas, called Duck C'r. to Ujiland, 
called Chester Cr., all along the west side 
of the Delaware River, and so between said 
creeks, backwards as far as a man can ride in 
two days with a horse for and in consideration 
of these following goods to us in hand paid, 
and secured to l)e jiaid l)y AVii.i.iAM Thnn, 
projirielary of Tennsylvania, and territories 
thereof, viz. : 20 guns, 20 fathoms of match 
coat, 20 fathoms of strong water, 20 blankets, 
20 kettles, 20 ])ounds of powder, lOO bars of 
lead, 40 tomahawks, 100 knives, 40 j)airs of 
stockings, i barrel of beer, 20 pounds of red 
lead, 100 fathoms of wampum, 30 glass bottles, 
30 pewter spoons, 100 awl blades, 300 tobacco 
pipes, 100 hands of tobacco, 20 tobacco tongs, 
20 steels, 300 flints, 30 pairs of scissors, 30 
combs, 60 looking-glasses, 200 needles, I skip- 
pie of salt, 30 pounds of sugar, 5 gallons of 
molasses, 20 tobacco boxes, loo jewsharps, 20 
hoes, 30 gimblets, 30 wooden screw boxes, 
103 strings of beads — do acknowledge, &c. 

I need hardly point out our own 
Government's treaties and purchases of 
lands from the different tribes of Indi- 
ans, even up to the present time, to show 
that we do recognize the Indians title 
to the lands they occupy, although we 
take rather forcible means to dispossess 
them when we want it for ourselves. 
Civilized nations claim a certain* right 
of protection over, and right of settle- 
ment in heathen countries by discov- 
ery, as against all other civilized na- 
tions ; but they never have, I believe, 
claimed the right to take the lands 
from the natives of the soil without 
semblance of acquiring the native title, 
except, perhaps, in cases of conquest. 

Armstrong, in his address at Ches- 
ter, before the Historical Society of 
Pennsylvania, Nov. 8, 1851, p. 15. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



says : " Chester and its neighborhood, 
would seem to have been granted to six 
inhabitants, for on Mar. 22, 1678, acon- 
veyance was made by Hans Juriansen 
Kien, of Taokonink (Tacony), to his 
brother, Jonas Juriansen Kien, of 200 
acres in ' Upland town or neighbor- 
hood,' to whom with five others, 1200 
acres had been granted by the English 
government at New York. The names 
of the other grantees we have not ascer- 
tained. Neeles Mattson and James San- 
dilandswere, doubtless, two of them." 
The conveyance of Hans Juriansen 
Kien says, infer a/ia : " Together with 
the housing and other ai)purtenances 
standing upon the said Hans Kein's 
lot of land lying and being at Up- 
land town aforesaid near the creek, 
between the houses and lots of James 
Sandilands and Jurian Kien." Jonas '■ 
Jur. Kien, afterwards acknowledges a | 
deed, &c., for making over unto John j 
Test, late of London, merchant, all 1 
the above. Said Jonas also conveys j 
to John Test a certain block-house, by i 
him, said Jonas, built on the above- 
mentioned lot, near the water side of 
the creek. Test conveyed the same 
to Marmaduke Randall, of London." 
He further says that, "There can be 
no question that this (grant for 1200 
acres) was but a patent of confirma- 
tion, not an original grant, and that 
the same land had been granted, or 
very likely confirmed to the Swedish 
settlers by Dutch patents. The his- 
tory to the title of Finland, afterwards 
called Marrietties Hook, and subse- 
quently Marcus Hook, may throw 
some light on the subject." 

In 1653, Queen Christina, granted 
the region of Marcus Hook, as far as 
Upland kill, to Captain (John Am- 
mundson) Besk, and his wife, for faith- 
ful services on behalf of the colony, 



and in 1675, Andross confirmed the 
lands of Marrietties Hook, amounting 
to 1,000 acres, to the six possessors 
thereof^Charles Jansen, Olle Raes- 
seen, HansOlsson, Olle Neilson, Hans 
Hopman, and Jan Hendrickson. ' ' As 
a large part of the present City of 
Chester stands on the tract of land 
presented to Besk, the following trans- 
lation of the original grant will be of 
great interest. It is as follows : 

" We, Christina, by the grace of (lod, (^)ucen 
of Sweden, Gothen, and Wenden, Crand 
Princess of Finland, Duchess of Eastland, 
&c. 

Be it known that of our favor, and because 
of the true and trusty service which is done 
unto us and the Crown, l)y our true and trusty 
servant, Captain Hans Ammundson Besk, for 
which service he hath done, and further is 
obliged to do so long as he yet shall live ; so 
have we gi-anted and given unto him freely as 
the virtue of this open letter is and doth show 
and specify, that is, we have given and freely 
granted to him, his wife and heirs, that is heirs 
after heirs. One certain piece and tract of 
land, being and lying in New Sweden, Marcus 
Hook by name, which doth reach up to, and 
upwards to Upland Creek, and that with all 
the privileges, appurtenances and convenien- 
ces thereunto belonging, both wet and dry, 
whatsoever name or names they have, and 
may be called, none excepted of them, that is 
which hath belonged to t/iis aforesaid tract of 
land, of age, and also by law and judgment 
may be claimed unto it, and he and his heirs 
to have and to hold it unmolested forever for 
their lawful possession and inheritance. So 
that all which will unlawfully lay claim there- 
unto, they may regulate themselves hereafter, 
so that they may not lay any further claim or 
pretence unto the aforesaid tract of land for- 
ever hereafter. Now for the true confirma- 
tion hereof have we this with our own hand 
under-written, and also manifested with our 
seal, in Stockholm, the 20th of August, in the 
year of our Lord 1653. 

Christina, [i.. s.] 
Neils Tunc.EI.L, Secretary. 

This is not, as Mr. Ferris thinks, a 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



curious (locuincnt, hut a well and care- 
fully drawn legal conveyance of a right 
royal gift. Dr. Smith, says of this 
grant, had it extended from Upland 
kill, so as to have included the site of 
Marcus Hook, it would have includ- 
ed a front on the river of four miles, 
which is exceeding improbable. Now, 
really I see nothing improbable about 
it. The captain was very evidently a 
distinguished man, and he and his wife 
favorites with the Queen — that he was 
wealthy and did not need the tract 
called " Marcus Hook," is proved by 
the fact that he never took possession. 
The confirmation of the i,ooo acres 
by Governor Andross to the six, hardly 
includes this tract ; that land was very 
evidently below Hook Creek. The 
land presented by the Queen to Cap- 
tain Besk, afterwards passed — a part 
of it — the place where Mr. Abraham 
R. Perkins now bves, and more, by 
some means — by patent, I presume — 
into the ownership of John Salkeld, 
from Cumberland, England, one of 
the most celebrated Quaker preachers 
this country has had. He came from 
England with his wife, and settled in 
Chester, in 1 704. The Mortons and 
the Johnsons owned the rest of the 
tract. The old Thurlow farm. Eyre's, 
Felton's, Trainer's, &c., belonged to 
the Mortons. The Mortons here re- 
ferred to, are the descendants of Mor- 
ton Canuteson, that is, Morton, the 
son of Canute Morton, who owned 
some of this property as far back as 
1698. He was one of the witnesses 
to the will of Jan Jansen (John John- 
son), of Marcus Hook, i6th March, 
1684-5, ^i"**^^ signed his name Morton 
Knuson. His name is also in Clay's 
list of the heads of Swedish families 
residing on the Delaware in 1693, as 
Morton Knutsscn. iKuiny; six mem- 



bers in his family. Mrs. Caroline 
Larkin Broomall, wife of Hon. John 
M. Broomall, late member of Con- 
gress, and a member of the late Con- 
stitutional Convention of 1872-73, 
is a descendant of this branch of the 
Swedish family of Morton, which set- 
tled in what is now Delaware County, 
previous to the year 1655. 



n. 



I HAD in my possession, some years 
since, a Dekd of Confirmation, 
known as an " Old York Patent,'''' 
which was found among the papers of 
my great-grandfather, John Crosby, 
late Associate Judge of Delaware Coun- 
ty, in his house at Ridley quarries, one 
of the old residences of the Crosby's, 
known as '■^ Crosby Place,'''' and now 
owned and occupied by my old school- 
mate, John C. Leiper. The original 
I presented to the Historical Society 
of Pennsylvania. It read as follows: 

" Francis Lovelace, Esq., one of y'= (jeiitlc- 
nien of his Majesty's Honorable Privy Cham- 
ber, and Governour Generall under his Royall 
Highness, James Duke of York and Albany, 
&c., of all his Territoryes in America, to all 
to whom these presents shall come, sendetli 
greeting. Whereas, there is a certain piece 
of land on the Delaware River, now in y*^ ten- 
ure or occupation of J)r. Laurentius Carolus as 
his pro]ier right, bounded of y« soulli with the 
river, with Captain Carr's Kill west, \\ith 
Neals Matson's land to y'' east, and running 
unto ye woods north-west, containing by esti- 
mation, two hundred acres, together with a 
house and two lotts of ground lying and being 
in Upland, containing about five acres of 
gnnind. bounded by y'= I'pland Kill west, by 
y" cluirch land south, to y"^ north by James 
.Sandiland's land, to y"^ east by Neals Lewi- 
son's land, now for a confinnacion unto him 
ye said Dr. Laurentius Carolus, in his posses- 
sion and the premises know y^ of 

y" CJovcrnour His Royall Highness I 

have ratified, confirmed and sj-ranted, and bv 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



tliesc presence doe ratify, confirm and ^rant 
unto Dr. Laurentius Carolus, his heirs and as- 
signs, the aforesaid parcells of land and pre- 
mises, with all and singular the appurtenances. 
To have and to hold y® said lotts of land and 
premises unto y® said Dr. Laurentius Carolus, 
his heirs and assigns forever. Yielding and 
paying therefor yearly and every yeare, as a 
([uitt rent unto his Majesty's use two bushells 
of winter wheat when it shall be demanded 
by such officer or officers in authority as shall 
be empowered and establisht on Delaware 
River and parts adjacent, to command and 
receive y® same. 

Given under my hand, and sealed with y" 
seale of y® Province at Fort James, in New 
York, y* Hrst day of May, in y" 23d yeare of 
his Majesty's Reign, Anno Dm., 1674. 

Francis Lcjvelace. 

Recorded by y'' order of y" Governour. 
Matthias Nicolls, Secretary^ 

The following will also be interest- 
ing, taken from the Abstract of Pa- 
tents in the office of the Secretary of 
State of New York, at Albany, vol. 2, 
p. 54, dated Aug. 6, 1668: 

" To James Sandilands to contirm him two 
lots of land in Upland at Delaware, upon y« 
north side of y* creek or kill, next to and ad- 
joining to Israel Helms and Just Danielson's 
and bounded with Villas Latie, containing in 
breadth six and thirty yards, as laid out by the 
officers at Delaware.'' 

And in same, on April 8, 1669 : 

"To Rev. Laurenty Caroly, Alinisti-r to tJie 
Swedes, a piece of land at Delaware, held by 
him, and lying at the north-east side of Up- 
land kill, beginning from the river side along 
by the kill, in breadth to the lot of Jan Daniells 
about 27 rod in length along the river side to 
a small kill, called Prisser's kill, about three 
hundred rod, being about equal breadth be- 
hind and before, and amounting in all to about 
two or three and thirty acres, or about sixteen 
Morgen, more or less." 

A lot of the size described would 
contain more than fifty acres. 

Ami in same, p. 64. June 13, 1670: 



"To James Sandilands, a grant to him of a 
lot of land at Delaware, * * lying in Up- 
land, bounded on the S. W. by the kill, on the 
N. E. by lands of Neils Lawson, on the east 
by Jurian Kien's land, and north and by west 
by lands of Neils Mattson, containing by esti- 
mation Five acres of ground, — as also another 
piece of land, bounded by the kill above, north 
and west by the land of Jurian Keene, and on 
the south-east by the land of Lawrence Lock." 

In same book, p. 54, Aug. 4, 1668: 

" To Jurian Kene, to confirm to him three 
lots of land in his possession lying in Upland, 
on the west side of the Delaware River, bound- 
ed on the west by Upland kill or creek, and 
on the east by the minister's land, on the 
north with Villas Lacies, and on the south with 
Hans Jurienson, , also a piece of land, for- 
merly Smith's Point, lying on the north side 
of Upland, which in the whole amounts to 

about acres of ground, together with a 

piece of meadow which runs from Smith's 
Point south-east of the river, being bounded 
on the north-east by Israel Helms, and on the 
south-west side by Villas Lattie." 

The blanks are in the record. 

From Holmes' Map, containing the 
names of the original purchasers, made 
by Penn's order in 1681, it appears 
that ' ' Sandarlan ' ' was the purcha.ser 
of all lands from Chester to Preest 
(now Ridley) Creek, for some distance 
back into the country ; then came 
Townsend's track on Chester Creek, 
and Caleb Pusey's; then, extending 
across from Chester to Ridley Creek, 
Thomas Brassy's, Churchman and the 
Free School, Richard Few, Thom 
Coborn, John Martch, John Martin, 
Richard Crausby (1,000 acres), and 
others' tracts ; below Chester Creek, 
Robert Wade, and others. Above 
Preest Creek, Preest had quite a large 
tract fronting the river ; back of him, 
John Simcock, John Nixon, Walter 
Fossett, John Sharpless, &c. 

In Smith's History, there is a coi)y 
of an old draft of the lands at Clitstcr, 



10 



HISTOKV OF ClIESTEK. 



giving tlie names of the owners. It is 
without date, and the original is in 
the possession of Thomas Darlington, 
of Birmingham, Chester County, Penn- 
sylvania, indorsed, ''Chester, Pn., R. 
Long: C. Pusey, James Sanderland & 
others." Meaning a draft byR. Long- 
shore, surveyor, showing land of C. 
Pusey, &c. The draft includes the land 
between Chester and Ridley creeks, 
and the names of the owners are, James 
Sanderland, Neals Lauson, Eusta An- 
derson, Richard ffriend, Urin Keen, 
Caleb Pusey, Samuel Buckley, The 
Church Lands, John Hoskins, Thomas 
Brassey, Richard Townsend, and the 
" Mill Land," which was the old mill 
property at what is now called Upland, 
then owned by William Penn, Samuel j 
Carpenter and Caleb Pusey, and at a 
later day known as Richard Flower's 
mill. It is now owned by the heirs of 
John P. Crozier, deceased. 

The original Swedish owners of land 
at Chester were, as far as I can ascer- 
tain, Dr. Laurentius Carolus, Neals 
Matson, Leals Lauson, James Sander- 
land, Just Danielsen, Jurien Keen, 
Hans Juriensen, Israel Helms and the 
Swedish Church. 

In Claf s Swedish Annals, 2d ed., 
1858, p. 170, Api)endix, he states: 
" Laurence Lock came over in the 
time of Governor Printz. He preach- 
ed at Tinicum and Christiana. He 
was for many years the only clergyman 
the Swedes had. He died in 1688." 
'' He gave up the first office to Jacob 
Fabritius, a German, and kept the lat- 
ter till his death." So says Mr. Du- 
ponceau, in a note to his translation of 
Campanius' History of New Sweden, 
p. 109. 

In Hazard's Annals, p. 139, will be 
found a sea-letter to " Lawrence Cor- 
nelius, one of her majestv of Sweden's 



subjects in New Sweden, from Gover- 
nor Printz, for a vessel about to sail 
on a trading voyage. It is dated at 
New Sweden, at the Fort Christina, 
the ist of Oct., 1653. This person 
is the same, I imagine, as the one 
named in the "Old York Patent." 
If so, it proves that Dr. Larentius Ca- 
rolus was one of the earlier settlers at 
Upland. The difference in the modes 
of spelling the name in the two docu- 
ments, I do not deem of any import- 
ance, as in the patent the name is 
evident^- rendered in Latin. This 
gentleman seems to have had a multi- 
plicity of names ; but he must have 
known his own name l)etter than any- 
body else. To a petition (Hazard, 
333,) he signs himself "Laurentius 
Carels, minister." He was the first 
Swedish minister residing at Upland. 
Dr. Smith, p. 80, speaks of a sad 
misfortune that happened the Swed- 
ish priest, the Rev. Laus. Carels. It 
appears that on Sejjt. 20, 1661, one 
Jacob Jough, ran away with the dom- 
inie's wife, leaving his trunk at the 
house of Andries Hendricssen, of Up- 
land, a Finn of notorious bad charac- 
ter. The doniinie, as he is sometimes 
called, went to the Finn's house in 
search of his wife, broke open the door 
of a room, found the trunk, broke it 
open, and took out some of his wife's 
clothing, leaving a memorandum of 
what he had done. For this suit was 
brought against him by the Dutch Vice 
Director Beekman, as sheriff, and he 
was tried before a court at Altona, 
Beekman being the presiding judge, 
and Peter Cock, Matheys Hanson and 
Oloff Stille, justices, and because the 
minister had usurped the authority of 
the court, he was fined two hundred 
guilders, which had been advanced to 
lough to l)uv corn for the comjianv. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



11 



" forty beavers due Mr. Dicker and 
myself" (Beekman), "by the afore- 
said Jough," besides an award of forty 
gl. for having usurped the authority 
of the court. Dr. Smith says very 
justly, "perhaps no better specimen 
could be found of a judicial robbery." 
It appears that previous to this trial, 
the dominie had been divorced from 
his wife, and had married himself to 
a bride of about seventeen years. The 
divorce does not appear to have been 
satisfactory to his tormentors, so at 
the trial Andries Hu^de, as secretary, 
notified him that his last marriage was 
illegal. The dominie then appealed 
to the Governor. See his petition in 
Hazard, p. 332, as follows : 

Al'PKAL OK LAURENTIUS CAREI.S, MINISTER. 

.SV;- .- — My humble submissive service to you, 
and which I hope always to remain. It will 
not l)e unknown to you, Sir, in what manner, 
since the elopement of my wife, I have fallen 
from one misfortune to another, because all my 
deeds performed in consequence of this elope- 
ment have been misconstrued, so that I have 
been condemned in heavy amends, which in my 
poor situation I cannot by any means bring 
together, as besides that I paid already nearly 
200 guilders. I am now condemned in a fine 
(jf 280 guilders. The true state of the case is 
this : While I was searching for my wife I 
imagined she was concealing herself in that 
jilace, on which I broke it open, but found 
nothing but a few pairs of stockings, which 
the fugitive captor of my wife left behind, of 
which 1 made an inventory ; and whereas, it 
has been taken amiss as if I by this deed in- 
tended to vilify the court, and therefore am 
condemned to pay a fine of 280 guilders, and 
pay what the fugitive was owing, whereas I, 
in my innocence, and in that situation, having 
no other intention whatever but to search for 
my wife. So it is my submissive petition, that 
it may please your Honor to make a favorable 
and merciful intercession on my behalf, by this 
meeting, and pardon graciously what is com- 
mitted through ignorance, and to save my re- 
])ulation as a Minister, not to inflict any further 
iiunishment. 



"What regards that I married myself. I 
cannot discover anything illegal in it. I acted 
just in the same manner as I had done before, 
with respect to others, exactly so as others do 
who are not prosecuted for it, and I can 
conscientiously assure you, that it was not 
perfonned with any evil intention. Had I 
known that my marrj'ing myself in this manner 
should have been so unfavorably interpreted, 
I should have submitted to the usage of the 
Reformed Church, but I did not know it; 
wherefore I pray once more the Honoral>le 
General, that he will vouchsafe me his aid, 
and take into consideration my forlorn situa- 
tion, so that I without becoming a burden to 
others, may supply my daily wants, &c. 

Laukentius Carei.s, iMiuish'?-.'' 
On the 24th July, 1663, Abelius 
Zetscoven, received a call from the 
Swedish congregation, but Rev. Lears 
opposed his preaching, so that the 
Commissioners had to threaten him 
with a protest, before he would allow 
the new minister to preach on Whit- 
Sunday. I Albany Records, p. 431. 
In 1676, the dominie again, (under 
the name of Laurence Carol i, ) got 
into trouble for selling liquor to the 
Indians, and about a mare. The mare 
suit was entitled Hans Peterson vs. 
Dom. Laurentius Carolus, Upland Re- 
cord, p. 74. The translator of Cam- 
panius calls him Laurence Lock, and 
it is said by Duponceau, that his real 
name was Laurence Charles Locke- 
nius ; for which statement there is no 
evidence. 

In 1677, Laurentius Carolis had a 
grant made to him of 350 acres of land 
near Croom kill, and in 1678, com- 
plaint was made to the court, that 
Lears Carolus had fenced in some of 
the church glebe lands; and it was 
" ordered that he should have all be- 
longing to him, the rest he must leave 
out." 

The Swedes made an effort to sui^er- 
cede the Rev. Lears, which was not, 



12 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



however, successful. Our dominie ap- 
pears also to have been the school- 
master ; I give the statement in full. 
"Towards the close of the Dutch 
dynasty (1664), the Swedes made an 
effort to supercede the Rev. Lears, by 
the appointment of Abelius Zetsco- 
ven, but the opposition made by the 
reverend incumbent was so strong, no 
permanent position seems to have been 
assigned to him. This gentleman 
preached at Tinicum church on the 
last Monday of Pentecost, at the re- 
quest of the Swedish Commissioners. 
They desired to engage him as a school- 
master, at the same salary as given to 
the Rev. Lears ; but the people of New 
Amsel, where it may be inferred he was 
employed in the came capacity, would 
not dismiss him. He never had charge 
of any congregation in the South River 
as a regularly ordained minister. ' ' The 
Rev. Lears' "great infirmity seems to 
have been an over fondness for intox- 
icating drinks. It may, however, be 
inferred that he became reformed in 
his later years; for in 1674, he became 
the proprietor of a tract of land for- 
merly occupied by Olle Stille, at the 
mouth of Ridley Creek, and we are 
informed by Campanius, that he died 
in the Lord, in 1688." The dominie, 
in the record of the Upland court, 
where there are numerous suits record- 
ed against him, is always styled Lau- 
rentius Carolus, which is the Latinized 
version of his real name, Lawrence 
Carels. In old documents, the same 
name is often spelled two or three 
different ways in as many lines. Peo- 
ple often deny relationship with others 
of the same name, saying, " they are no 
connexion of ours ; they spell their 
name with an s, an e, or a y, instead 
of an i, &c., as we do;" not know- 
ing, as for instance, that the Cornish 



Saer, Sair, Sairs, Sayre, Sayers, Sayres, 
or the Scottish Eyre, Ayre, Air, Ayres, 
Eyres and Aire, are but variations of 
the well-known names of Sayres and 
Eyre. Lower' s Dictionary of Family 
Names, pp. 4, 106, 305; Dixon' s Sur- 
name.^, pp. 24. 65. Our ancestors, who 
emigrated to this country, were not 
only careless in this manner, but of- 
tener did not know how to spell their 
own names, especially those not of 
English descent, and not educated. 

James Sandilands, was a Scotchman, 
who appears to have come to this coun- 
try as a common soldier, in Captain 
Carr's company, from which he was 
discharged April 27, 1669, having pre- 
viously, in 1668, obtained a patent for 
lands at Upland, on the upper side 
of Chester Creek, where the ancient 
i part of the town stands. His younger 
brother, Jonas, appears to have joined 
him after his settlement at Upland. 
James Sandilands, was one of the most 
noted persons in the early history of 
Upland. He married a daughter of 
Jurien Kien, and died April 12, 1692, 
aged fifty-six years, leaving several 
children. They were Catharine who 
married Jasper Yeates, a native of 
Yorkshire, England.* Elinor who 
married George Foreman, and James, 
Jonas, Christian, Mary and Lydia, 
who were minors at the time of their 
father's death. James Sandilands, his 
son, is the one to whom the church 
of St. Paul's, at Chester, is so much 
indebted for his liberality. He died 
in the year 1707, aged twenty-nine 
years, and his widow married Henry 
Munday. See Administration Book 
B., p. 62, 1708, at Philadelphia, the 
"Petition of Prudence Monday, late 

* Mr. Yeates was a lawyer, and became one 
of the Provincial Judges. lie was the grand- 
father of Judge Yeates, of the Supreme Couj-t 
of Pennsylvania. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



13 



Sandilands." The frontispiece to the 
Record of Upland, is copied from the 
mural tablet in St. Paul's church, for- 
merly standing against the south wall 
of the old church, torn down about 
1845. It is a massive slab of gray 
sandstone. The emblems cut upon it 
are excellently executed. Along its 
borders, in large capital letters are the 
words — 

HERE LIES INTERR-D THE BODIE OF 

JAMES SANDELANDS, MARCHANT, 

IN UPLAND, IN PENSILVANIA, 

WHO DEPARTED THIS MORTAIL LIFE, 

APRILE THE 12, 1692, AGED 56 YEARS, 

AND HIS WIFE, 

ANN SANDELANDS. 

Its face is divided into two parts, 
the upper bearing in cypher the initials 
J. S. and A. S., the arms of the San- 
delands family — Argent, a bend Azure, 
on the border dividing the upper from 
the lower part are the words, vive 

MEMOR. LETHI FFUGIT HORA. The 

lower half contains many emblems of 
mortality, the tolling bell, the passing 
bell, the skull and cross bones, the 
empty hour glass, an upright coffin 
bearing on its side the words memento 
MORI, TIME deum, and in either cor- 
ner crossed, a scepter and mattock, and 
a mattock and spade. The tablet was 
removed to the exterior of the church 
many years since, in consequence of 
interfering with some repairs, and was 
defaced with white-wash, and broken 
in half, and a small piece chipped off 
containing the year of the death. In 
the attempt at restoration, the figures 
1682 were cut, instead of 1692. It 
has been carefully cleaned and placed 
in the vestibule of the new church 
lately, through the exertions of Dr. J. 
M. Allen. Upland Record, note, p. 
167. 



The church was formerly entered by 
a large door in the centre of the north 
wall. When the old structure was re- 
paired, a new belfry and steeple were 
put on it at the west end, a vestry-room 
built at the eastern end, a large en- 
trance door cut out of the western 
wall, over which there was erected a 
gallery, the old north door closed up, 
the space thus saved turned into extra 
pews, and the Sandiland tablet which 
was in the aisle, against the southern 
wall of the church, opposite the old 
northern door, was removed to the 
outside of the church, immediately 
opposite, on the other side of the wall 
from where it formerly stood inside, 
and whitewashed to protect it from 
the weather. The old church in my 
early boyhood, had no steeple on it 
as it had at a later date, and is repre- 
sented in a plate in Smith's history. 
The belfry was detached from the 
church, and stood at the north-west 
corner. The lower part was built of 
stone, the upper portion frame-work, 
where the bell was hung. The frame 
portion vibrated dangerously when the 
bell was ringing, which was the cause 
of the old belfry being torn down, 
instead of being repaired ; and an 
ugly belfry and steeple built at the 
west end of the church. The old 
bell-tower was about 35 feet high, 
and about 10 feet square on the out- 
side. The bell, bible, and commu- 
nion service used in the old church, 
were presents from Queen Annie. 
The bell became cracked, and was re- 
cast in the year 1835, at the time the 
new belfry was put on the church. 
The old metal was, however, used in 
making the new bell. 

The communion service presented 
by Queen Annie and Sir Jeffry Jeffries 
is still used. The old bell and one set 



14 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



of the communion service, had engrav- 
ed on them Annte Regina. The Queen 
made similar gifts to other churches in 
the colonies at the same time. I find 
it stated that, " In 1835, when the 
church was repaired, George W. Piper 
and J. (rifford Johnson took the bell 
in a wagon to Wiltbank's foundry in 
Philadelphia, to be re-cast, and before 
that was done, the establishment was 
destroyed by fire, and all the metal 
collected there was fused into one 
mass, and the identity of the old bell 
was thus lost. The present bell was 
cast at the foundry, but there is no 
certainty that it contains any portion 
of the old bell presented by Queen 
Annie." I never heard the above 
story until 1872, and am not inclined 
to believe that part about the old metal 
not being in the new bell, else I would 
have heard the statement before. In 
my boyhood, it was said, with pride, 
by the church i)eopIe, that the old 
metal was preserved in the new bell, 
I am certain I heard my father, who 
was a vestryman of the church say so, 
and my mother confirms my recollec- 
tion. 

The old stone belfry of the church, 
would, if standing now, be one of the 
greatest antiquarian curiosities in the 
United States. The destruction of 
this, of the old church, of the old 
market-house in the square, and the 
first meeting-house of the Friends, — 
improperly called the old assembly 
building, — is much to be regretted. 
Those old buildings were well known 
all over the country, and rendered the 
name of old Chester attractive, and 
the place interesting to the curious 
traveller, to the historian and anti- 
quarian. 

I have not been able to obtain views 
of the old bclfrv, or of the old market- 



house, else I should have preserved 
them in the form of illustrations to 
this work. 

After the Swedish settlements on 
the Delaware were conquered by the 
Dutch, the Swedes were directed to 
concentrate in villages, but they never 
did so. Among the places named for 
this purpose was Upland. The Swed- 
ish magistrates were permitted to re- 
main in office — a conciliatory policy 
which was imitated by the English, 
when they came into possession of this 
part of the country. 

By the terms of the capitulation of 
P'ort Christina, in 1665, all the Swedes 
and Finns in the country, were ordered 
to take the oath of allegiance to the 
States General of New Netherlands. 
The oath taken by the Swedes, and 
others, residing on the Delaware, was 
as follows : 

" I, undersigned, promise and swear, in the 
presence of the Omniscient and Almighty God, 
that I will be true and faithful to their high 
and mighty lords and patrons of this New 
Netherland province, with the Director Gen- 
eral and Council already appointed, or who 
may be appointed in future, and will remain 
faithful without any act of hostility, sedition 
or intention, either by word or deed, against 
their high Sovereignty, but I will conduct my- 
self as an oliedient and faithful subject, as long 
as I continue to reside on this SoiTH River 
in New Netherland. So help me Ciod Al- 
mighty." 

Hans Hofi'el, Harnian Jans, 

Claes Peterson, Johan Anies, 

Constantinus Grumbeigh, Oloflf Transen, 
Abraham Jansen, Lambert Michielsoii, 

Barent Jansen, Simon Hidden, 

Martin Martens, Jan Echost, 

Samuel Peterse, Thomas Bruyn, 

William Morris, Andress Jansen, 

Claes Tomassen, Jan Jansen, 

Molens Andriessen, Matheys Elkisse. 

In all twenty, of whom, only seven 
wrote their own names. I do not re- 
cognize among them any residents of 
Upland. Wc must presume that this 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



15 



paper was only one of many circulated 
by the Dutch officers, appointed to 
take the oaths of the Swedes and others 
living on the Delaware, as we know 
it does not represent the tithe of the 
names of the people then living there ; 
for it is not at all probable they ran 
away for a time, or secreted them- 
selves ; they simply remained passive, 
as they did in regard to the order to 
concentrate in villages. 

The Dutch divided the western shore 
of the Delaware into three counties or 
judicial districts, the most northern of 
which was called Ophlandt, its capital 
being Upland. This division was re- 
cognized and continued by the En- 
glish ; and in 1676, under (Governor 
Andross, the magistrates of Upland 
were, Peter Cock (now Cox), Peter 
Rambo, Israel Helm, Lace Andries, 
Oele Swen, and Otto Ernest Cock, 
{pronounced in Swedish Coke, ) all 
Swedes. Helm, or Helme, was for 
many years Indian interpreter. Ram- 
bo and Cock, were two of the four 
magistrates who, in 1658, met Gover- 
nor Stuyvesant at Tinicum, with a pe- 
tition for various privileges. 



The list of laxalilc 
in 1677, was as foil()\v^ 



ial)ilants of Uiiland, 



I Claes Schram, 2 James Sanderling & 

I Robert Waede, slaue, 

I Jan hendricx, 2 John Test & servant, 

1 Richard Bobbinghton, i Jurian kien, 

2 neeles Laersen & Son, i Rich : noble, 

1 henry bastings, i John hayles,* 

2 will woodman & servt. i mich Yzard. 

"■ I suspect the name of John Hayles, in the 
list of Upland taxables, to mean John Bales or 
Beal. John Beals testified in court ( 1691) that 
he had plowed certain land in dispute fourteen 
years before. Dr. Joseph Beale, of Chester 
County, is now (1874) Surgeon-(ieneral U. S. 
Navy; his relatives reside in the vicinity of 
Coatesville. Dr. Bealc entered the Navy, 
Sept. 6, 1837. 



III. 

Upland had for its western boun- 
dary Chester Creek, and, it is presum- 
ed, Ridley Creek for its eastern limit. 
Marritties, or Marcus Hook, included 
all the land between Chester Creek 
and Naaman's Creek. 

At a court at Upland, Nov. 13, 
1677, Capt. Hans Jargin was ordered 
to fit up the House of Defence, for the 
use of the court at its next sitting. 
The court had been previously hold- 
ing its sessions at the house of Neeles 
Laersen, who kept a tavern, and who 
was a troublesome fellow, if we judge 
him by the number of suits and com- 
plaints made against him to the court. 
His daughter seems to have taken after 
her father. There are several entries 
in the record of Upland Court con- 
cerning her, all growing out of the 
same matter, which is thus related at 
page 182, under the date of Oct. 13, 
1680: 

" Complaint being made by the constable, 
Andries Homman, that Claes Cram keeps un- 
lawful company with Anna Laers daughter, y« 
wife of Benk Salung, the court have ordered 
and strictly forbidden them both for yo future 
not to keep company together any more, under 
what pretext soever, upon payne of severe 
punishment, and do order that Claes Cram 
pay y'' cost of this and y'= former complaint 
& order about y* same." 

On Nov. 12, 1678, James Sandi- 
lands, on behalf of the inhabitants of 
Upland, complains that Neeles Laer- 
son, with a fence stops up the old and 
usual way to the fly—/, e. the marsh 
or meadow. The court ordered him 
to remove the obstruction. On the 
same day, complaint was made by the 
church-wardens, that Neeles Laerson 
has taken in with the two lots of land 
he bought of dominie Lasse Carolus, 
here in Upland Towne, some of the 



16 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



church or glebe lands. The court 
ordered, that he should have his due 
of the two lots purchased by him, 
equal with the other lots in Upland, 
but what it shall be found he had taken 
in more the same shall be taken out 
and a?inexc(i to the other church lots. 
This statement is another evidence of 
the existence of a prior episcopal own- 
ership in the glebe lands mentioned in 
the text. 

At a court held at Upland, by his 
majesty's authority, Nov'r y" 12, 1678 
— p'sent Mr. Peter Cock, Mr. Peter 
Rambo, Mr. Otto Ernest Cock, Mr. 
Lassie Andries, Mr. Oele Swensen, 
Justices — the case of Wm. Orian vs. 
John D'haes, an action on a book 
account for the sum of 167 guilders 
was tried, and ihe first Jury known to 
have been called in Pennsylvania, was 
empanelled. Their names were, — 
bans moens, dunk williams, Xtopper 
Barnes, Edm draufton, Peter Jockum, 
Isacq Sauoy, Jan hendriks, Jonas kien, 
moens Cock, John Browne, Jan Boel- 
son, henry bastings. The verdict was 
for the plaintiff for the full amount of 
his claim which had been disputed. 
The justices were not satisfied, how- 
ever, with the verdict, for the " court 
thought fitt to suspend y" verdict of 
y^ jury, and y' determinacon of this 
case till next court day, at w*"" ty°"^ both 
pit and dft are to bring their bookes in 
court," — when, as Dr. Smith says the 
court "determined to be the judge 
both of the law and the facts," for 
they then "doe Judge this a vexatious 
suite and order a nonsuit agst y* Pit 
with y* costs," — thus exemplifying the 
glorious uncertainty of the law. 

March y' 13, 1678-9, Neeles Laer- 
sen was ordered by the court to make 
or Leaue a lane or street from upland 
Creeketo y* House of Defence, or coun- 



t/y house, between that time and the 
next court, and in default to be fined at 
the discretion of the court. Neeles 
Laersen was a Swede; he owned 182 
acres of land in the very heart of 
Upland, or Old Chester. The first 
court of which we have any record, 
was held at his house, which was an 
Inn. The records are lost. At a 
court at Upland, Nov. 14, 1676, it 
was ordered that Laerson be paid 
for his charges for keeping the court 
last year, and that the former clerk, 
William Tom, deliver to the present 
clerk, Eph. Herman, the records and 
other public books and writings be- 
longing to the court. This was done, 
but as they were found to be in con- 
fusion, Mr. Tom was ordered to ar- 
range them in proper order. When 
Tom died, in 1677, they were still 
in his po.ssession, and are now, pro- 
bably, lost forever. The judicial pro- 
ceedings, from 1676 to the present 
time, in the district including Chester 
and Delaware counties, have been pre- 
served. Those covering the time from 
1676 to the commencement of Penn's 
administration in 1681, were publish- 
ed by the Historical Society in i860, 
under the the title of the Record of 
Upland Court, edited by Edward 
Armstrong, Esq., of the Philadelphia 
Bar, with notes, which I have freely 
used. J. Smith Futhey, Esq., of the 
Chester County Bar, in his Historical 
Sketches of that county, criticising 
the Upland Record, says : ' ' The forms 
of proceedings in these early courts 
were primitive and incongruous in 
their character, and there does not 
seem to have been any clearly drawn 
distinction between civil and criminal 
cases. The whole method of practice 
was rather a dispensation of justice, as 
the idea of it existetl in the heads and 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



17 



was tempered by the hearts of the 
judges, than the administration of any 
positive law, written or unwritten. 
The justices were uneducated, but 
well-meaning men, and an examina- 
tion of the Record shows, that they 
acted with the strictest regard to 
justice, and the preservation of the 
public morals." 

Neeles Laerson, mentioned so fre- 
quently in the Record, died in 1689, 
leaving a widow, Anico, /". e., Ann, 
and several s'ons, who were known by 
the name of Friend. So says Dr. 
Smith, p. 476, who seems to think it is 
quite probable that the name of Friend 
was an alias. May it not be that the 
widow, who lived to the advanced age 
of 106 years, dying in 1724, married a 
second time, and perhaps that Richard 
ffriend, who owned in Chester two 
tracts of land, one of 160 acres, and the 
other of 28 acres, and was also part 
owner of another lot together with 
James Sandilands and Samuel Buckley, 
as will be seen by reference to the old 
map in possession of Thomas Darling- 
ton, z. fac simile of which is in Dr. 
Smith's history, facing page 138. On 
the same map is laid down Neeles Lau- 
son's 182 acres. It will be noticed that 
the name on the map is spelled Lauson. 
In the graveyard at St. Martin's church, 
Marcus Hook, there stand alongside of 
each other two tombstones, one bear- 
ing the name of Lauson, the other 
Lawson. Were those buried there 
the descendants of Laerson ? There 
is living in Chester a family called 
Lear, probably, descendants of Neeles 
Laerson. I went to school with Wil- 
liam, Edward and Annie Lear. Their 
father, " Charley" Lear, was the sex- 
ton of St. Paul's church for many 
years, and his stout jovial wife, " So- 
i)hv" Lear, was a well-known laund- 



ress, who had a smile, a joke and a 
pleasant word for every one. If Dr. 
Smith is correct then, perhaps, the 
Lears of Chester are descendants of 
the Rev. Lears Carolus, and not of 
Laerson. 

In Clay s Annals is the following 
list of Swedish families, residing in 
New Sweden in 1693, with the num- 
ber of individuals in each family, 
taken from a document left by the 
Rev. Mr. Ruddiman, who was the 
founder of the old Swedes' church in 
Philadelphia, which was built A. D. 
1700. He died in 1708. See also 
Acrelius'' History of New Sweden. I 
have followed the spelling in Acrelius ; 
(except in two cases of evident error 
— Bengston and De Foff — which I giv-e 
corrected,) see Memoirs of the His- 
torical Society of Pa., vol. ii., p. 190, 
&c. The list gives the names of the 
heads of families only : 



5 Hindrich Anderson,* 
9 Johan Andersson,* 

7 Johan Andersson, 

5 Joran Anderson, 

6 John Arian, 

3 Joran Bagman, 
9 Anders Bengtsson,* 
2 Bengt Bengtsson, 
II Anders Bonde,* 
I Johan Bonde, 

5 Sven Bonde, 

8 Lars Bure, 

6 William Cabb, 

7 Christian Classen, 

6 Jacob Classon, 

I Jacob Clemsson,* 

9 Eric Cock, 

7 Gabriel Cock, 

7 Johan Cock, 

II Capt. Lasse Cock, 

8 Mans Cock, 

5 Otto Ernst Cock, 

I Hindrich Collman, 

6 Conrad Constantine, 
S Johan von Culen, 

7 Otto Dahlbo, 

9 Peter Dahlbo, 

5 Hindric Danielsson, 

6 Thomas Dennis, 

I Anders Didricsson,* 

7 Olle Diricksson,* 
5 Staphan Ekhorn, 



I Eric Ericsson, 

1 Goran Ericsson, 

3 Matte Ericsson, 

5 Hindrich Faske, 
10 Casper Fisk, 

6 Mathias de Foss,* 

4 Anders Frende, 

7 Nils Frendes (widow), 
7 Olle Fransson,* 

7 Eric Gastenberg, 
3 Nils Gastenberg, 

2 Eric Goransson, 

6 Brita Gostafsson, 

8 Gostaf Gostafson, 

7 Hans Gostafsson, 

3 Jons Gostafsson,* 

2 Mans Gostafson, 

3 Johan Grantrum, 
I Lars Hailing, 

9 Mans Hallton,* 

5 Israel Helm,* 

3 Johan Hindersson, ji. 

4 Anders Hindricksson, 
7 David Hindricsson, 

5 Jacob Hindricsson, 

6 Johan Hindricsson,* 
5 Johan Hindricsson, 

7 Matts HoUsten, 

9 Anders Homman,* 
7 Anders Hoppman, 
7 Frederic Hoppman, 
7 Ji'han Hoppman, 



18 



HISTORY OF CIIESTEK. 



5 Nicholas Hoppman, 
9 Hindricli Iwarsson,* 
I Hindrich Jacob, 

1 Matts Jacob, 

4 Hindrich Jacobsson,* 
9 I'eter Joccom, 

5 Didrich Johansson, 

6 Lars Johansson, 

10 Simon Johansson,* 

4 Anders Jonsson, 

2 Jon Jonsson, 

3 Mans Jonsson, 
6 Nils Jonsson, 

I Thomas Jonsson, 
I Christiern Joransson, 

11 Hans Joransson, 
I Joran Joransson, 

5 Staphan Joransson,* 

6 Lasse Kempe, 

6 Frederic Konig, 
6 Marten Knutsson, 

6 Olle Kuckow, 

5 Hans Kyu's (widow), 
8 Jonas Kyn, 
3 Matts Kyn, 

5 Nils Laican, 

7 And. Persson Longaker, 

6 Hindrich Larsson, 

7 Lars Larsson, 
I Lars Larsson. 
1 Anders Lock, 
I Mans Lock, 

3 Antonij Long, 

4 Robert Longhom, 
I Hans Lucasson, 

1 Lucas Lucasson, 

1 Peter Lucasson, 

5 Johan Mansson, 
3 Peter Mansson, 

10 Marten Martensson, jr.* 

3 Marten Martensson, sr.* 

4 Mats Martenson, 

11 Johan Mattson, 
3 Nils Mattsson,* 

7 Christopher Meyer, 

5 Paul Mink,* 

8 Eric Molica,* 

3 Anders Nilsson, 

4 Jonas Nilsson,* 
II Michael Nilsson,* 

5 Hans Olsson,* 

5 Johan Ommerson,* 

2 Lorentz Ostersson, 

4 Hindrich Parchon, 

5 Bcngt Paulsson, 

6 Gostaf Paulsson, 

9 Olle Paulsson,* 

5 Peter Palsson, 
I Lars Pehrsson, 

6 Olle Pehrsson, 

8 Brita Petersson, 
5 Carl Petersson, 

7 Hans Petersson,* 



5 Hans Petersson, 

1 Lars Petersson, 
3 Paul Peterson, 

3 Peter Petersson, 

3 Peter Stake, alias 

Petersson, 

2 Reiner Petersson, 
9 Anders Rambo, 

6 Gunnar Rambo, 
6 Johan Rambo, 

6 Peter Rambo, jr., 

2 Peter Rambo, sr. ,* 

3 Matts Repott, 
3 Nils Repott, 

5 Olle Resse,* 

3 Anders Robertsson, 

3 Paul Sahlunge, 

7 Isaac Savoy, 

6 Johan Schrage, 

4 Johan Schute, 

5 Anders Seneca,* 

7 Broor Seneca,* 

6 Jonas Skagge's (widow), 

1 Johan Skrika, 
3 Matts Skrika, 

2 Hindrich Slobey, 

5 Carl Springer,* 
I Mans Staake,* 

3 Chierstin Stalcop, 

6 Johan Stalcop, 

6 Peter Stalcop, 
I Israel Stark, 

3 Matts Stark, 

8 Adam Stedham, 

5 Ashmund Stedham, 

7 Benjamin Stedham, 

7 Lucas Stedham, 

9 Lyioff Stedham, 

8 Johan Stille, 

5 JohanStiUman, 

4 Jonas Stillman, 

4 Peter Stillman, 

3 Olle Stobey, 

5 Gunnar Svenson, 

9 Johan Svenson,* 
7 William Talley, 

4 Elias 'Lay, 

6 Christiern Thomo's 

(widow), 
9 Olle Thomasson, 

4 Olle Thorsson, 

5 Hindrich Tossa, 
4 Johan Tossa, 

I Lars Tossa, 
I Matts Tossa, 

7 Cornelius van der Weer, 
7 Jacob van der Weer, 

3 Jacob van der Weer, 

I William van der Weer, 
7 Jesper Wallraven, 
1 Jonas Walraven, 

4 Anders Weinom,* 
4 Anders Wihler. 



Making in all 939 in(li\i(luals in 188 
families. Of these, IVtrr Rambo and 



Andrew lionde, had l)een in thi.s coun- 
try fifty-four years; having, therefore, 
arrived here in 1639. Those mark- 
ed with an asterisk [ thus * ] are the 
names of persons born in Sweden. 
Sven Svenson, although living in 
1693, '•'' omitted from the list, Acre- 
lius, p. 193. Carl Springer had a mid- 
dle name — Christopherson. It will be 
l)erceived that the authography of many 
of the above names has been changed, 
for instance — Bengtsson, is now Bank- 
son ; Hindricsson, Hendrickson, then 
Henderson ; Svenson, is Swanson ; 
Cock, into Cox ; Gostafsson, is now 
Justis ; Jocum, pronounced in Swedish 
Yocum, is now so rendered ; Hollsten, 
is Holstein ; Kyn, Keen; Hoppman, 
Hoffman ; Von Culin, Culin ; Hail- 
ing, is now Hulings or Hewlings;* 
Seneca, is Sinnickson ; Martenson, 
or Mortenson, has become Morton ; 
Whiler, Wheeler ; Ericsson, is Erick- 
son, &c. And with regard to Chris- 
tian names, many of them correspond 
with our own, and merely show a dif- 
ference in spelling and pronunciation 
between the two languages. Anders, 
therefore, among the Swedes, natur- 
ally becomes with us Andrew ; Johan, 
John ; Mats, Matthew, or Matthias ; 
Carl, Charles ; Bengt, Benjamin, or 

'"" The family of Hewlings tliat setlled in tlie 
vicinity of Marcus Hook, and had a patent 
from Pcnn for their land, are said to i)e of 
English descent. Proud, vol. i. p. 150, in a 
note says, that in 1678, a ship arrived from 
London which "brought John Dunn, Thos. 
Kent, John Hollingshead, with their fam- 
ilies, William Hewlings, Abraham Ilewlings, 
and others ; the former of these settled about 
Salem, the rest at Burlington." One of my 
friends, Edward Hewlings, of Philadelphia, a 
descendant of the Marcus Hook Hewlings, 
has the original deed of Penn to his ancestor 
Abraham Hewlings, who was the owner of 
a large tract of land in Gloucester County, 
New Jersey. The late Pishop While, of 
Philadelphia, married a grand-aiint of Mr. 
K.Kvard I Un\ lin-s. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



19 



Benedict ; Nils, Nicholas ; Staphon, 
Stephen ; Wilhelm, and also Olle, 
William ; Hindrick, Henry ; Michel, 
Michael ; Jons, Jonathan. And I may- 
add, that the names of Nilsson, became 
Nelson ; both Jonasson and Johansson 
are now Johnson; Lucasson, Lucas; 
Thomason, Thompson, or Thomson. 
Van der Weer, is now Vanderveer ; 
Resse, Ross and Rawson. Grantrmia 
became Grantham ; but this old Ches- 
ter name and family are extinct in this 
country, although there is in the Ches- 
ter Directory for 1859, p. 73, the 
name of James Grantham, farmer. 
He is not, I believe, a descendant of 
the old family. There are, however, 
descendants in the female line living 
in the town. The name of Ostersson, is 
Otterson ; Pehrsson, has become Pear- 
son ; Paulson, Poulson ; Longaker, 
Longacre, and Bonde, Bond. Al- 
though some of the latter family call 
themselves Boon, yet they are not to 
be confounded with the English fam- 
ily of Boon, which is also an English 
name, as will be seen by reference to 
the Records of Friends' Meeting at 
Reading. The ancestors of Daniel 
Boone, the celebrated Kentucky fron- 
tiersman, were English, and Friends, 
as the Reading Record shows conclu- 
sively. Some of the Bonds of Dela- 
ware county retain their original name, 
dropping the e only, which in Swed- 
ish is sounded soft in pronouncing the 
name. Bonde in Swedish means a 
peasant. A descendant of this family 
lived on the Delaware about a mile 
below Chester bridge, on Third Street, 
and when my uncle Joseph W. Smith, 
lived at Fairview, then called Bermuda 
Farm, I used to visit the Bond boys. 
The old Swedish names are yet very 
common, and very familiar in Dela- 
ware county, and it would be very 



difficult to find any of the old families 
without Swedish blood in their veins, 
except, perhaps, among strict Friends. 



IV. 



In Upland Record, note C, Arm- 
strong states, "The House of Defence, 
or Block-house, which Jargin had been 
directed to ' fit up, and furnish fitt for 
the court to sitt in,' was built upon 
the land of Neeles Laerson. We are 
able to fix its position and probable 
size, by the description in a Deed from 
Lydia, the widow of Robert Wade, 
to Edward Danger, Oct. 10, 1697, 
Deed Book A, 270, IVest Chester. 
That deed recites deed from Ann 
Learson, als Friend, and Andrew Lear- 
son, her son, to Robert Wade, Sept. 
7, 1687. Recorded in Philadelphia, 
March 29, 1689. It stood on the 
east side of, and at an angle to, the 
present Second Street, which was 
laid out after its erection, and the 
eastern line of which street ran through 
the centre of the building, from its 
S. E. to its N. W. corner. If it was 
rectangular in shape, its size was 14 
by 15 feet, and, according to measure- 
ment, its S. E. corner stood about 84 
feet from the N. E. cor. of Front and 
Filbert. The northern portion of the 
house of Mrs. Sarah B. Coombs — built 
by Captain Thomas Robinson — occu- 
pies about II feet of the south end of 
the site of the House of Defence." 

Dr. Smith in Appendix H., p. 542, 
says : 

' ' The second court-house was erected 
in 1 684-5 '^"'^ ^^^ location is established 
by a deed from Robert Wade and wife, 
to Henry Hollingsworth, executed in 
Oct., 1695. This deed describes the 
lot as ' directly opposite the old Court 
House, fronting said Chester Street.' 



20 



IIISTOKY OF CHESTER. 



A jail was erected at tlie same time, 
but there is reason to believe that it 
was built near the creek, and that there 
was a street laid out between the two 
buildings. The same deed recites that 
the northern line of the lot it describes 
passes back from the street, ' along 
the south side of the newly erected 
Court House.' Henry HoUingsworth, 
who was a Friend, was dealt with by 
the Meeting the same year, ' for cut- 
ting the eaves of the new prison.' 
Besides this fact, there is evidence in 
advance that there was a prison as 
well as a Court House erected on the 
lot next north of the lot conveyed by 
Robert Wade and his wife to Henry 
HollingsAVorth. A Court House and 
prison were erected on that lot about 
1694. They probably occupied the 
site of the prison erected in 1684-5. 
The deed last mentioned, establishes 
another important fact ; the lot con- 
veyed by it is described as having 'a 
passage 6 foot broad on the south 
side,' extending from the street to I 
the creek. This passage is now built 
up. Its location nearly opposite the 
House of Defence, leaves little room 
to doubt that this passage is the iden- 
tical lane that Neeles Laerson was 
directed by the Upland court to leave 
open." 

The third building occupied as a 
Court-house, or rather the fourth, if 
we count Laerson 's tavern as the first, 
for the House of Defence was not 
the tavern — for Captain Hans Jar- 
gin's company was quartered in the 
Block House when he was ordered to 
" fitt up and finish y* house of defence 
att Upland fitt for the Court to sitt 
in" — stood nearly opposite to the 
House of Defence, 259 feet 6 inches 
from the S. W. corner of Front and 
James Streets. It was erected in 1695, 



upon a lot sold to the county by John 
Hoskins, [Deed Book A, p. 190, at 
West Chester,^ and its first story was 
used as the prison. A portion of the 
old wall is yet to be seen, preserved in 
the northern gable of the building now 
occupying its site. The jail was in the 
cellar, and the bars of the windows 
are, or were a few years ago, in their 
original position. This court-house 
was built by John Hoskins, in the year 
1695, and by him conveyed to the 
Commissioners of the county. 

At March court, 1701, it was order- 
ed that the " old Court House be set 
on sale, the 6th day of the 3d mo. next, 
papers to be set up to give notice that 
it is to be sold at Vandew.'' At the 
same court it was ordered that Jasper 
Yeates, Ralph Fishbourn, Joseph Co- 
bourn and Andrew Jobe, be super- 
visors for the building of a new prison 
upon the ground of James Sandilands, 
and they are to build the said house 25 
feet long and 18 feet wide in the clear, 
or thereabouts, as they see cause, the 
said house to front on High Street, and 
at the north corner of the ground. 

At the Dec. court (10 mo.,) 1701, 
James Sandilands, by his attorney, 
David Lloyd, delivered a deed to John 
Blunston, Caleb Pusey, Ralph Fish- 
bourn, Robert Pile and Philip Roman, 
for a piece of land, being 120 feet 
square, in the township of Chester, 
for which said lot the grantees, at 
the same time, delivered a declara- 
tion of trust, showing that the i)ur- 
chase was for the use of the county. 
At the same court it was agreed by 
the Justices and the Grand Jury, "to 
repair the Court and Prison House" 
with all possible speed, and they ap- 
pointed Walter Martin, John Hoskins 
and Henry Worley to be supervisors, 
and oversee the work, and agree with 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



21 



the workmen, provide materials, and 
finish said work with all expedition, 
and to provide a pair of stocks and a 
7vhippiiig post. 

At a Court held 24th of 12 mo. (Feb.) 1701- 
2 : " We of the grand Jury for the body of this 
county do present to this court the necesity of 
a Court hous and prison hous, and finding 
y' there is little money in the bank, and that 
many have not paid their moiety, ^ Rate 
of the last assessment, desirs that such may be 
forsed; and also that there is necessity for 
speedygatheringof the other half of the county 
tax yet behind, do request the Justices to issue 
out warrants for the speedy gathering of the 
s'd half tax for the carying on s'd work and 
defraying y" charg &c." 

" Also in case of Emergency for the speedy 
perfecting of s'd work, &c., we the grand Jury 
request that the Justices take care to raise 
more monys, as the law directs, for we are 
sensibl that Law and Justice cannot have its 
perfect courc without such housis for their 
distribution as aforesaid." 

In 1703, the old Court House, no 
longer used, was presented as a nui- 
sance, and ordered to be torn down. 
The following is the order of the court : 
"The Grand Jury having presented 
the house commonly called the old 
Court House, as being a nuisance, 
and dangerous of taking fire, and so 
would endanger the town, the court, 
on deliberate consideration, orders — 
the said House to be pulled down, 
and that Jasper Yeates, Chief Burgess 
of the Borough of Chester, shall see 
the order performed." Now these 
proceedings must have had reference 
to the old House of Defence, which we 
know was constructed of logs. They 
could not have had reference to the 
second Court House, or else the pro- 
ceedings were stayed ; for at the close 
of the year 1705, an act was passed by 
the Legislature, to assure, grant and 
convey unto Ralph Fishbourn of Ches- 
ter, gentleman, one messuage, cottage 



house or tenement and lot of ground 
thereunto belonging, situate in Ches- 
ter, in the couiaty of Chester, formerly 
known by the name of the " Old 
Court House." This was the court 
house buik in 1684-5. 

The fourth Court House, a substan- 
tial stone structure, two stories high, 
was built in 1724, which date may be 
seen on its south wall. The building 
is still in a good state of preservation. 
Its position is on the west side of Mar- 
ket Street, between Work and Free, 
now Fourth and Fifth Streets. The 
building contains the town-clock, and 
its style of architecture denotes the 
olden time, being girded above each 
story with roof projections, which 
gives it a look of solidity quite unlike 
modern erections. The Jail, its ne- 
cessary companion, once stood upon 
the same lot, at the corner of Market 
and Work Streets, but the county seat 
having removed to Media, the jail was 
sold and turned into a manufactory of 
cotton goods, having been much in- 
creased in size. Its site is now occu- 
pied by Lincoln Hall, erected in 1866. 
The old jail stood back from the street 
some distance, thus giving a handsome, 
wide, paved walk from Work Street to 
the Court House door, beneath two 
rows of linden trees. That part of the 
jail building fronting Market Street, 
was occupied as a residence by the 
sheriff of the county. The old Court 
House is now used as the Town Hall, 
and for other purposes. The fine 
sand-stone of which it is built, has 
been disfigured by paint of a dull red 
color. The jury roorns were in the 
second story of the building. 

In reference to the names of the 
streets, before they were re-named by 
the city authorities : Second was call- 
ed Filbert : the present Front is anew 



22 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



street entirely, made by filling- in the 
flats. Old Front, is now called Edg- 
Diont Avenue ; it was anciently called 
Chester Street. The present Third 
Street was czS\&di James Street ; Fourth 
was Work ; Fifth was Free Street ; 
Market was called Main Street, and 
Welsh Street was named ' ' Love Lane. ' ' 
This latter was a quiet, retired walk, 
embowered in trees twenty years ago; 
and there the old, old story has been 
told many and many a time. Dr. 
Smith, p. 234, says : 

" The ancient but substantial building, now 
occupied as a Town Hall in the Borough of 
Chester, and which was used as a Court House 
u]) to the time of the removal of the seat of 
justice to Media, was erected in 1724. The 
following addition to the rear of the building, 
(forming a recess where the judges sat,) was 
erected at a much later date. An act was 
passed this year (1724), ' to enable the trustees 
to sell the old Court House and prison, belong- 
ing to the borough and county of Chester.' 
This sale was effected the following year, and 
the record shows conclusively, that the 'old 
Court House' referred to, was the one built 
ajjout the year 1694-5, upon the lot purchased 
from John Hoskins, and for which a deed was 
executed by him to the county in 1697. The 
purchase-money paid by the county, was ;^8. 
The trustees sold the property to William 
Preston, of Philadelphia, mariner, for £2^." 
/Recorder's Office, West Chester, Deed Book 
D. p. 276. It is now (1862) owned by Fred- 
erick Fairlamb. 

. Directly to the north of this old 
Court House, there formerly stood, at 
about 30 feet distance, the old struc- 
ture, called ' ' The old Assembly House, ' ' 
(erroneously, as the first assembly met 
Dec. 7, 1682, before it was built,) late 
the well-known residence of Samuel 
Long, the cooper, torn down previous 
to i860. The south side of this old 
building was 230 feet 6 inches, south of 
the S. W. corner of Front and James 
Streets. It was the fijst Meeting House 
of the Friends at Chester, and was erect- 



ed in 1693, and it is said William Penn 
often preached there. Samuel Lytle, 
the old school-master of Chester, used 
to be fond of speaking of this tradi- 
tion. He was 85 years old in i860, 
and is now deceased. 

The following extracts from the pro- 
ceedings of the Court, show that the 
new Court House was for a time made 
the depository of the Public Records : 

" At a Court of Private Sessions, held at the 
house of John Hannum, in Concord, Dec. 15, 
1724, Joseph Parker having petitioned this 
Court setting forth y® great danger y'= records of 
y« county lay in, as well as by casualities of fire, 
as other accidents which might happen, and 
refer the same to your consideration to provide 
a place for keeping y^said Records in w't may 
be of greater security, whereupon y*^ Court 
upon mature consideration of the same, allows 
y^ petition to be reasonable, and orders y'^ clerk 
to present y^ same before y^ commissioners and 
Assessors of y* same county, in order that they 
may fit a room in y^ new Court House for keep- 
ing y® s'd Records in ; and when prepared 
order y^ old clerk to transmit all y« said Re- 
cords to y* place so appropriated accordingly, 
and not to be removed without y'> Court's di- 
rection." 

In 1 741, the Court House and Pri- 
son, were repaired and painted, a well 
dug in the Court House yard, and an 
order given by the Commissioners to 
Nathan Worley for ;^io, for planks 
for flooring the two dungeons on the 
east side of the prison and laying the 
floors, &c. And one to Thomas Mor- 
gan for ^5 \\s. 6d., for 150 lbs. 
spikes for laying the dungeon's floors. 
Charles Justis says : " The old wooden 
pump that stood in front of the old 
jail, had an iron handle. That when 
the old Lombardy i)Oi)lar trees were 
cut down, the plat was paved with 
brick, and two rows of linden trees 
were planted to replace the old pop- 
lars. The plat was laid in grass pre- 
viously." When the county offices 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



23 



which stood to the north of the Court 
House, on the same side of the street, 
at the corner of Free, were erected, I 
cannot say. The building was double, 
with a stairway at the north end lead- 
ing into the second story, a part of 
which was used as the office of the 
County Commissioners, and I think 
Edward Darlington had his law office 
in the other part, at one time. The 
first story was occupied by the Pro- 
thonotary of the County, &c. 

Upon the Record of Upland Court, 
of March 13, 1677, there appears the 
following curious entry : 

" Mr. John Test lirought into Court a certain 
man-servant named William Still, a Taylorhy 
trade, whome he the sd Test did acknowledge 
to have sold unto Captain Edmund Cantwell, 
for the space and tearme of four yeares, be- 
ginning from the first of April last past. The 
sd William Still, declared in Court to be will- 
ing to serve said Captain Cantwell the above 
tearme of four yeares." 

At a Court held 11 Sep"" 1677, there 
was tried a case of assault and battery ; 
Justice Israeli Helm, P", Oele Oelesen 
(als) Coeckoe Def. It appears that the 
Deft, at the house of Juns Justisse, with 
Evill words abused the Justice and af- 
terwards beat him and tore his shirt. 
The Court after hearing the testimony 
of Lace Coleman, &c. "Doe Condemne 
the said oele oelsen in a fyne of 210 
gilders ; sixty thereof for the poore or 
Church and the Remainder to the 
sherife, and doe further order y' the s** 
oele oelsen doe humbly aske forgiue- 
ness of Justice Israeli helm and the 
Co''' for his s^ offence." Oelesen, is 
now Allison. 

Albert Hendriex, having served his 
leare as constable, was relieved. He 
is the first person known who held 
that office in Pennsylvania. 

Proud, in his History of Pennsyl- 



vania, vol. i. p. 193 (1797), writing of 
the settlement of the English under 
Penn, states : 

" Three ships sailed for Pennsylvania this 
year (1681), two from London, and one from 
Bristol. The 'John & Sarah,' from London, 
commanded by Henry Smith, is said to have 
been the first that arrived there, the ' Amity,' 
Richard Dimon, master, from the same place, 
with passengers, was blown oft" to the West 
Indies, and did not arrive at the Province till 
the spring of the next year ; the ' Bristol Fac- 
tor,' Roger Drew, commander, arrived at the 
place Chester now stands, on the nth of 
December, 1681, when the passengers seeing 
some houses, went on shore at Robert Wade's 
landing, near the lower side of Chester Creek, 
and the river having frozen up that night, 
the passengers remained there all winter." 

Watson says : 

" They dug caves and built huts of any 
materials they could find for their habitations, 
and thus passed the cold weather. In one of 
those caves or huts, was born the patriarch 
Emanuel Grubb, who lived to be nearly 1 00 
years old. Some of his descendants live in 
Chester at the present time. He died in 1767, 
aged 86 years. ' He was really called the first 
born of English parentage in the Province.' " 
See note to communication of John F. Watson, 
in the Upland Union of Nov. 4, 1826, and in 
his MS. Historical Collections, p. 190, in the 
Library .of the Historical Society of Pa. 

The winter of 1681, must have been 
a very severe one, and it is said the 
winter of 1657 was remarkable for its 
severity ; the Delaware was frozen over 
in one night, so that a deer could run 
over it, which, as the Indians related, 
had not happened within the memory 
of man. 

The only passengers in the three 
ships, whose names are mentioned by 
Proud, are — William Markham, De- 
puty Governor, John Otter, Nathaniel 
Allen, Edmund Lovett, with their fam- 
ilies, and several servants of Governor 
Penn, and Joseph Kirkbride, then a 



24 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



boy, afterwards a celebrated Quaker 
l)reacher. 

The preceding paragraph introduces 
Robert Wade, the first member of the 
Society of Friends who settled at Up- 
land, where he arrived and took up his 
abode in the year 1675. He was an 
f^nglishman, who came over to this 
country in the "Griffith," with Fen- 
wick ; his residence was on the west 
side of Chester Creek near its mouth, 
on the same tract that had been known 
as Printzdorp, and which had been 
previously occupied by Mrs. Papegoya, 
the daughter of the Swedish Governor 
Printz. This lady having been re- 
instated in the family possessions at 
Tinicum, disposed of her Upland pro- 
perty to Robert Wade, or some other 
person from whom he obtained it. 
Formerly, a solitary pine tree stood 
near the place, pointed out by the old 
folks as the former site of Wade's 
house. I remember Joseph B. Wade, 
late of Chester, now of Philadelphia, 
pointing out the place to me. The 
old pine tree was blown down by a 
storm, in 1864. 

Printzdorjj was situated on the grant 
by Queen Christina to Capt. John 
Amundson Besk, who never seems to 
have taken possession of the lands 
given him. The letter of Beekman, 
of Sep. 14, 1662, gives the exact loca- 
tion of the place. He writes, " I in- 
quired into the situation of a certain 
lot of land on the south-west side of 
Upland Kill, and was informed by the 
Swedish Commissaries and other an- 
cient inhabitants of said nation, that 
the aforesaid is called Printz' s village, 
which had already been in ])ossession 
during 16 years of the Swedish Govr. 
John Printz, and his daughter, who 
owns it." 

Tlie maiden name of Mrs. Papegoya 



of Upland was Jeuffro Armigart Printz, 
as appears by the record of a judgment 
obtained by her in 1672, at the Assizes 
in New York, against Andrew Carr 
and Priscilla, his wife. Hazard' s An- 
nals, p. 423. 

Along the banks of the Delaware, 
near by, there grew in my boyhood, 
about 1836, a number of walnut trees, 
extending along the shore to Edmund 
Pennell's place, near Richard W. 
Flowers' residence, called Lamokin ; 
here I used to Avander with my young 
companions, my brother, William 
Martin, Jr., Franklin A. Dick, Lewis 
Ladomus, Harry Porter, Samuel and 
Harry Edwards, and others, to gather 
walnuts, or to hunt for Indian arrow 
heads on the sandy beach. We used 
to find great numbers of the latter, 
made of white, yellow, and gray flint 
stones, some of which I have yet ; we 
put most of our treasures in the Lyce- 
um, in a room over the old Market 
House in Chester. 

The residence of Robert Wade, was 
called the Essex House (probably in 
remembrance of his native place), and 
was rendered famous, as being the 
dwelling wherein William Penn was 
first entertained upon his first landing 
in Upland, on the 29th of Oct., 1682. 
It was here also that William Edmund- 
son, an eminent Quaker preacher, held 
a meeting in 1675. Whether Essex 
House was built by Friend Wade, or 
by the daughter of Gov. Printz,* is 
unknown, probably by the latter, as 
we find Robert Wade within a few 
months after, taking up his abode at 
Upland, the owner of a house large 
enough to entertain Edmundson, and 
hold a meeting in, and prepared to 

* I am aware oilier parties say, Mrs. I'ape- 
j^oya's liouse aii<l proiierty were at 'rinieuni, 
hut they are mistaken. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



25 



join tlie preacher on a journey to 
Maryland. The Essex House, stood 
upon the site of the commodious brick 
house now at the N. W. corner of 
Penn and Front Streets, owned and 
occupied by Captain Richard Ross, 
and which was built by Jesse M. Eyre, 
in 1850. The S. E. gable of Wade's 
house fronted the river Delaware ; 
its S. W. front was towards Essex 
Street, and its front porch looked 
upon Chester Creek. It was situated 
about 200 yards from where Chester 
Creek now flows into the Delaware ; 
but the entrance was much nearer in 
the days of Penn, the creek at that 
time extending its waters more west- 
ward ; the meadow not having then 
been banked in, as now. It stood, 
though in ruins, until about the year 
1800, and its foundations were struck 
upon in excavating the cellar for the 
present building. Between Wade's 
house and the river, stood the ancient 
pine and walnut trees, that waved a 
welcome to the peaceful footsteps of 
our Commonwealth's founder. 

The exact spot of Penn's landing is 
recognized as being near the south 
front of the former residence of John 
M. Broomall, Esq., about 40 feet from 
the porch, and 50 feet eastward of the 
line of Penn Street. Its locality is 
preserved by a pine tree, planted un- 
der the auspices of Mr. Broomall and 
the Historical Society of Pa. White- 
head' s Historical Sketch , Directory of 
Chester, 1859-60. 

The following persons are known 
to have been passengers in the ship 
" Griffin," which vessel arrived in the 
Delaware on the 23d of the 9th month 
(Nov.), 1675. The list is copied from 
" A Record of Arrivals, ' ' belonging to 
the Monthly Meeting of Friends at 
Salem, New Jersey, in the archives of 



the Historical Society of Pa. : — John 
ffenwick, Richard Wade, Richard 
Noble, Richard Guy, Edward Champ- 
ney, Samuel Wade son of John Wade 
of Northampton, England ; Nath'l 
Champneys, Sr., Joseph Ware, Nath'l 
Champneys, Jr., John Burton, Fran- 
cis Smithey, John Smart, son of Roger 
Smart of Wiltshire, aged 18 years; 
Samuel Nicholson, his wife and five 
children, viz., Agnes, Elizabeth, Sam- 
uel, Joseph and Abel Nicholson ; John 
Smith and his wife, Martha Croftos, 
of the county of Norfolk and their 4 
children, Daniel, Samuel, David and 
Sarah Smith, and Edward Wade and 
Prudence his wife. It is not known 
whether any of these Friends settled 
at Upland at that time. Robert Wade 
and his family, therefore, enjoy the 
distinction of being the first members 
of the Society who settled in Penn- 
sylvania. 

On Dec. 5, 1679, Albert Hendricks 
o{ Lamoco, transferred by deed to John 
Test of Upland, his land at the head 
of Upland Creek, beginning at Robert 
Wade's marked beech tree, being part 
of a greater tract, conveyed by patent 
from the Governor, and called Lamoco. 

Watson, in his Annals of Philadel- 
phia, says : 

" In 1679, was born Richard Buf¥ington, 
son of Richard, he being the first born English- 
man in Pennsylvania. The facts in this case 
were particulary commemorated in the parish 
of Chester, on the 30th of May, 1739, when 
his father having attained his 85th year, had 
a meeting of all his descendants, numbering 
115 persons, assembled at his house, the first- 
born being present, and then in the 60th year 
of his age." At a later period Mr. Watson 
writes ; " Although I was correct as to the 
family collection of Richard Buffington in 
1739, I think I must have been mistaken 
respecting his being called a first horn, unless 
it referred to a ])eriod before the English 



20 



HISTORY OF CHEST EK. 



Cnvernmenl existed, say ni 1654. See MS. 
Collections of Watson, p. 190. 

As to Richard Bufifington, it appears 
to me that Watson in his later note, 
referred to the father instead of the 
son. I have not met with any old 
recoids of this family, but from their 
wills, it appears that the first Richard 
died in January or February, 1747-8, 
having survived his son Richard, who 
died in April or May, 1741. The 
3d Richard was born 11 mo. 23, 1715- 
16, and died in 1781 or '82. The 
4th Richard was born 12 mo. 18, 
1750, and died in 1803. His son, 
the 5th Richard, was born in 1802, 
and is still living in Chester County. 
March 10, 1680, Richard Noble, 
produced his commission from Gov. 
Andross, dated Dec. 15, 1679, ^^ Pur- 
veyor of Upland, to the court. And 
Israel Helm transferred his house, 
land and plantation at Upland to 
James Sandilands. 

June 7, 1680, Gov. Andross, com- 
missioned Otto Ernest Cock, Henry 
Jones, Israel Helm, Lasa Cock, and 
George Browne, Justices of the Peace 
for Upland Court, the first commis- 
sion for this new county of Upland. 

Proud, makes the Deputy Gov'r, 
Col. Markham, a passenger in the 
"Bristol Factor." Now, as that ves- 
sel did not arrive at Upland till Dec. 
II, 1 681, he is evidently mistaken. 
His commission is dated April 10, 
1 681, and was presented to the Gover- 
nor at New York, previous to June 21, 
and on Sept. 13th, a court, with jus- 
tices, sheriff and clerk, holding their 
appointments from him, was in session 
at Upland, and on the very day the 
old Upland Court adjourned sine die. 
On Nov. 30, 1681, Gov. Markham pre- 
sided over the new court. His com- 
mission empowered him "to call a 



Council, and that to consist of nine, he 
presiding. ' ' In accordance therewith, 
he selected the following persons to 
form the Council : — Robert Wade, 
Morgan Drewet, William Woodman- 
son, William Warner, Thomas ffairman, 
James Sandilands, William Clayton, 
Otto Ernest Cock, and Lacy Cock. 
These took the oath of office at Up- 
land, on the 3d of Aug., 1681. The 
proceedings of the Council were kept 
secret, and nothing is known about 
them, except that on the day men- 
tioned, the first legularly constituted 
government in the Province of Penn- 
sylvania was organized, with its seat 
at Upland. 

During the years 1681, '82 ard '83, 
before the location and final settlement 
of Philadelphia, Uplatid must have 
been quite a lively place. It was the 
oldest settlement on the Delaware 
River known to the English ship- 
owners and provincial authorities, as 
being on the west side of the river, 
and supposed to lie within the boun- 
daries of Penn's grant, consequently 
most of the emigrants made their first 
landing there, and remained there 
until they had determined upon the 
places of their future residences in the 
colony. Mrs. Sarah Shoemaker, who 
died near Chester in 1825, aged 92 
years, said, her grandfather, James 
Lownes, told her such was the case. 
It is known that during the year 1681, 
twenty-three English ships with emi- 
grants to the Province, arrived in the 
Delaware. Many of these vessels 
anchored at Upland, without doubt, 
for it was then the chosen site for the 
future capital of Pennsylvania, and 
the Council and the Courts of the 
Province were then already in session 
there. It is said Penn would have 
made Chester the cajjital of his Pro- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



27 



vince, if he could have come to terms 
with the Sandilands about the pur- 
chase of the land. 

The present location of Philadelphia 
was only determined upon afterwards 
by William Penn, when he discovered 
that Uplattd was not far enough north 
for the 40th degree, the boundary line 
claimed by Lord Baltimore. See the 
History of Maso7i and Dixon'' s Line, 
by Latrobe ; published by the Historical 
Society of Fa., 1855. 

Henry Hollingsworth, the assistant 
of Thomas Holme, Surveyor-General 
of the Province, kept a journal in which 
this statement is entered. The journal 
was extant, until it was taken and de- 
stroyed by the British at Elkton, in 
1777. JFatson^s Annals, p. 14, and 
note. 



V. 



Hazard's Register for Jan., 1830, 
p. 79, has the following, copied from 
the original in the Prothonotary's Of- 
fice of the Court of Common Pleas at 
New Castle, Delaware : 

" Oct. 28, 1682, on the 27th day of October, 
1682, arrived before y* towne of New Castle 
in Delewer from England, William Penn, 
Esquire, Propriet'y of Pe7thdania, who pro- 
duced two certain deeds of feofment from y« 
Illustrious Prince James, Duke of York & Al- 
bany, etc., for this Towne of New Castle and 
twelve myles about it, and also for y«two Lower 
Counties, Whoorekills and St. Jones's, wch s'd 
Deeds bore date 24 August 1682, and persu- 
ant to the true Intent, Purpose and meaning 
of his Royal highnesse in y« same deeds hee 
y" sd William Penn, Received possession of 
ye Towne of New Castle, y^ 28th of October, 
1682." The description of the property con- 
veyed is thus set forth in the premises of the 
first of said deeds : " All that town of New 
Castle, otherwise called Delaware, and all that 
tract of land lying within the compass or circle 
of Twelve miles about the same, scituate, lying 



and being on the River Delaware in America, 
and all the Islands in said River Delaware, 
and said River and Soyle thereof lying north 
of the southernmost part of the said circle of 
Twelve miles about said Town; together with 
all the rents," &c. 

The claim of the State of Delaware 
to the absolute jurisdiction over the 
whole width of the Delaware River and 
Bay, for twelve miles above and twelve 
miles below New Castle, has often 
excited comment ; but it is remark- 
able that, during a period now of 194 
years, this jurisdiction has seldom been 
questioned, and never successfully. It 
has always been the custoni of the 
Courts of Delaware, to issue writs or 
other legal process seizing vessels or 
persons on the river, over to low-water 
mark on the shore of New Jersey. 

In 1848, the whole matter was defi- 
nitely passed upon by the Hon. John 
Sergeant, of the Philadelphia Bar, the 
referee in the celebrated " Pea Patch" 
case, which was a dispute in reference 
to the title of the island of that name 
in the Delaware Bay, upon which the 
United States erected " Fort Dela- 
ware." The review of all the facts in 
that arbitration was thorough, search- 
ing and complete, and the decision of 
the referee, which confirmed the title 
of the State of Delaware to the island 
and jurisdiction of the river within the 
twelve miles circle, is not likely to be 
reversed. Lately (May, 1872), New 
Jersey fishermen, without licenses from 
Delaware, have been arrested near the 
Jersey shore, taken to Delaware, fined, 
and compelled to take out licenses or 
stop fishing. The Governor of New 
Jersey has issued a proclamation claim- 
ing the jurisdiction of his State over 
one-half of the river, &c. This may 
bring the matter hereafter before the 
Supreme Court of the United States ; 



28 



lIISTUliY OF OHKSTEK. 



but I do not til ink that so ancient a 
title and jurisdiction as the one Dela- 
ware here claims, can be successfully 
resisted. 

The derivation of Delaware's title is 
as ancient, nearly, as the settlement of 
the English upon the river. The 
northern boundary of the State of 
Delaware is the well known semi-cir- 
cular line, called Mason and Dixon's 
Line — run in accordance with one of 
the two deeds of "feoffment" above 
mentioned, dated Aug. 24, 1682. The 
twelve miles circle does not run the 
jurisdiction of Delaware into the State 
of New Jersey, because the land in the 
latter State had been previously grant- 
ed, down to the water's edge, first to 
the Duke of York, and by him, in 
1664, to Lord Berkeley and Lord Car- 
taret. The grant to William Penn, 
with all its sovereign rights, pas.sed, 
by the Revolution, to, and became 
vested in the State of Delaware, and 
her jurisdiction ends where New Jer- 
sey's begins, at the water's edge on 
the Jersey shore. The circle crosses 
the river, on the north of New Castle, 
just below Marcus Hook, and above 
the present railroad station at Clay- 
mont (Naaman's Creek), and on the 
south it again crosses the river at a 
l)oint below Port Penn and "Listen's 
Tree." Considering the bends in the 
river, the length thus included of that 
stream is, probably, not less than 24 
miles. Below the circular line, the 
boundary between Delaware and New 
Jersey is, of course, the middle of the 
bay. 

On Oct. 28, 1682, John Moll, attor- 
ney for the Duke of York, made a for- 
mal livery of seizin to William Penn, of 
this circular grant. Upon Penn's land- 
ing at New Castle, he presented the 
new Proprietor with " the key of the 



Fort," and the great Quaker unlocked 
the door thereof and took possession. 
The attorney then presented him with 
" one Turf, with a sprig upon it, a por- 
ringer of river water, and soil, in part 
of all that was specified in said Inden- 
ture." This was an entire surrender 
and delivery of the land and water 
within the circle, and the transfer of 
the jurisdiction was afterwards made 
complete, and the whole transaction 
entered upon the records of the Duke 
of York's colony in New York. 

Delaware's claim is thus set forth in 
her Revised Code; chap, i, sect, ist ; 

" The Jurisdiction and sovereignty of the 
State extends to all places within the boun- 
daries thereof, &c. vSec. 2. The limits of the 
State are declared to be, the division lines 
between it and the State of Maryland, run and 
marked by the Commissioners and approved 
on the nth of January, 1769; the circular line 
between it and Pennsylvania, surveyed and 
marked in 1701, under a warrant issued by 
William Penn, in pursuance of the feoffment 
from the Duke of York, dated Aug. 24, 1682, 
as the same has been held, occupied and re- 
cognized by the said States respectively, ever 
since that time; low-water mark on the eastern 
side of the river Delaware, within the twelve 
mile circle from New Castle, and the middle 
of the Bay below that circle." 

William Penn having agreed to lay 
out a city, instructed his commission- 
ers, Crispin, Bezer and Allen : 

" That the creeks should be sounded on my 
side of the Delaware River, especially Up- 
land, in order to settle a great towne, and be 
sure to make your choice where it is most 
navigable, high, dry and healthy. That is, 
where most ships may best ride, of deej^est 
draught of water, if possible to load and un- 
load at y<>bank or key side without boating or 
litering it. It would be well if y* river com- 
ing into y' creek be navigable at least for boats 
up into the country, and y' the scituation be 
high, at least dry and sound, and not swampy, 
wch is best knowne by digging up two or 
three earths, and seeing the bottom." 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



29 



In Gordon's Appendix to his His- 
tory of Pa., p. 605, it is said, "It is 
not probable that Chester detained the 
attention of the commissioners, since 
it is wanting in ahiiost all the requi- 
sites for a large city." 

At this time all the titles to the land 
upon the Delaware River and Bay, 
from Upland to the Capes, were held 
from the New York Government. In 
1 71 7, when the Earl of Sutherland was 
endeavoring to obtain a grant of the 
counties of New Castle, Kent and Sus- 
sex from the crown, James Logan 
resisted his pretensions in an essay, 
tending to prove that they were always 
a part of the New York colony. In 
referring to the statement of the claims 
of the two proprietors, Lord Baltimore 
and William Penn, he states that, " al- 
though the title is not expressly men- 
tioned, it is there shown from Dr. 
Heylin's Cosmography, that Nieii Ne- 
derlandt extended to the westward and 
southward of Delaware River and Bay 
— that the Dutch had planted the 
western side of it, and built two towns 
on it, viz. : Whoorhill, now Lewes, and 
Sandt Hook, now New Castle — that 
this river being taken by the English 
from the Dutch in 1655, together with 
New Amstel and the Noord Riviere, 
now New York and Hudson, altogether 
as one country, known by the name of 
Nieu Ncdcrlandt, came therefore under 
the government of the Duke of York, 
whose right to the western side of the 
Delaware was fully submitted to by the 
Dutch and all settlers amongst them ; 
and when retaken by the Dutch, and 
conquered a second time by the En- 
glish, it returned to its former subjec- 
tion to the Duke." 

At the first session of the Court held 
at Upland, under the new dispensation 
of Dep. Crov. Markham, in 16S2, the 



following gentlemen were appointed 
officers of the court : — William Clay- 
ton, William Warner, Robert Wade, 
Otto Ernest Cock, William Byles, Ro- 
bert Lucas, Lasse Cock, Swan Swan- 
son and Andreas Bankson, Justices ; 
John Test, Sheriff ; and Thomas Re- 
vell. Clerk. Five of the Justices were 
English and four Swedes. The Duke's 
laws were declared abolished, and all 
legal proceedings were, by the Deputy 
Governor's orders, to be conducted 
" according to the good laws of Eng- 
land." During the first year the court 
found it impossible to carry out fully 
their instructions in this regard. 

The first case reached and called for 
trial by the new Court, was that of 
Peter Errickson vs. Harman Johnson 
and Margaret, his wife, an action of 
assault and battery. Morgan Drewet, 
Wm. Woodmanson, William Hewes, 
James Brown, Henry Reynolds, Robert 
Schooley, Richard Pittman, Lassey 
Dalboe, John Ackraman, Peter Ram- 
bo, Jr., Henry Hastings, and Wm. 
Oxley, yurors. Witness, — William 
Parke. Verdict, for the plaintiff, dd., 
damages and costs. 

In the next case the same parties 
were reversed, the same cause of action, 
and the same jury. The witnesses were 
Anna Colemon, Richard Buffington, 
and Ebenezer Taylor. Verdict for 
plaintiff, 40 shillings and cost of suit. 
It will be perceived that the old prac- 
tice of making the prosecutor plaintiff 
in criminal cases was still continued. 

And in a case of debt tried by the 
same court, there was a verdict given 
for 62 gilders; showing that it is hard 
to break off old habits. After the Re- 
volution, our ancestors found it as 
difficult to forget their £. s. and d. 

I have copied the above proceed- 
intrs to show that luiglish names were 



so 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



becoming, in 1681, (juite common at I 
Upland, and we might call a jury to- 
day in Chester, with some of the same 
names on the panel. Besides these 
English names, others occurred in the 
proceedings of the new court, which 
are familiar to our ears, viz. : Charles 
Brigham, AValter Humphrey, Casper 
Fiske, Richard Ridgeway, Richard 
Noble, Wm. Cobb, Francis Stephen- 
son, John Wood, John Champion and 
Thomas Nossiter. These and many 
others had become residents of Upland 
and its vicinity prior to the date of 
Penn's patent. 

Andreas Banckson, mentioned as 
one of the justices of the new court at 
Upland, in 1682, was a Swede, a na- 
tive of Stockholm, and arrived in this 
country March 24, 1656, in the Swed- 
ish ship '^ Mercuriusy His real name 
was Andres Bengtsson, and there were 
nine members of his family living in 
1693 ; and he was still living in 1703. 
See Clay s Annals, "^^i. 29, 167. An- 
dres Banckson, mentions in his will, 
proven at Philadelphia, Sept. 2, 1706, 
his wife, Gertrude, his sons Banet, 
John, Peter, Jacob, and Daniel, and 
his daughters, Catharine and Bridget. 
He was the possessor of an extensive 
estate in Passayunk, and elsewhere. 
The homestead, consisting of 218 
acres, he devises equally to his sons, 
Peter, John, Jacob and Daniel ; and 
a portion of it is held to this day by 
his descendants. Banet, /. e., Benja- 
min, was the father of Jacob, who was 
the ancestor of the wife of my brother 
William. 

My mother's grandmother, Ann 
Bond, wife of John Welsh, of Phila- 
delphia, merchant, was, family tradi- 
tion says, of Swedish descent ; she was 
a daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth 
Bond, of Marcus Hook ; Elizabeth, 



being, probably, a daughter of Walter 
and Sarah Martin, of the same place. 
Jacob Bankson in. Hannah, another 
daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth 
Bond. They had issue, Benjamin, 
Mary, Elizabeth, Rebecca {b. June 
23) 1753)) and Sarah; all of whom 
are mentioned in his will, proved April 
20, 1788, in which he calls himself 
"Yeoman of the District of South- 
wark," and refers to his son, Benja- 
min, thus : " If he returns again, and 
is alive after the decease of my wife, 
Hannah," &c. Benjamin was the 
captain of a merchant ship, which 
sailed from Philadelphia and was never 
heard of again. 

Mary, daughter of Jacob and Han- 
nah, b. Oct. 7, 1745, d. July 19, 1829, 
;;/. Samuel Taylor of Philadelphia, d. 
Oct. 7, 1780, and left issue ; Rebecca, 
Martha, b. Oct. 9, 1766; Hannah, 
b. Feb. 24, 1769 ; Mary, b. Sept. 13, 
1770; Bankson, b. Sept. 17, 1772; 
Samuel, b. Feb. 26, 1775 ; and Eliza- 
beth, b. Aug. 12, 1777. These two 
latter died young and unmarried. Re- 
becca, m. Capt. Azel Howard ; he 
d. Dec. 28, 1824, she d. Jan. 24, 
1858; their only child, Elizabeth, m. 
William Connell Graham, son of the 
late Robert M. Graham, druggist; their 
children were, i. Montgomery, d. at 
10 years: 2. Emma, m. Samuel Grant 
Smith, a grandson of the late Sam- 
uel Grant, an old and esteemed mer- 
chant of Philadelphia, they have one 
child, a daughter : 3. Clementia, ;//. 
Mr. Miller, and died March, 1875, 
leaving a son and a daughter, Em- 
ma : 4. Eliza, ?;/. John McDowell, 
and has a daughter: 5. Ella, m. Ben- 
jamin Cross, Jr., musician, (a son of 
the late distinguished musician, leader 
and composer, of the same name) ; they 
have three sons, lienjamin, Oliver, 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



31 



and another. Martha Taylor, b. Oct. 
9, 1766, m. a Mr. Wilson, of Ber- 
muda, W. I., and had Patty, m. Wm. 
Alexander, who died childless, and 
Mary Ann, m. George Claxton, who 
was a clerk of Bankson Taylor, ship- 
chandler, and had issue, George Wil- 
son Claxton, who married, but died 
without' issue about Jan. i, 1875, and 
Bankson and Howard Claxton, twins ; 
the latter died and left no issue, the 
former married a Miss Thompson, and 
died leaving three children. Martha 
Claxton, died single. Fannie Clax- 
ton ni. Howard lidwards ; and Alex- 
ander Claxton, who married, but his 
wife and children are all dead. He 
was lost at the burning of the ferry- 
boat, " New Jersey," on the night of 
March 15, 1856, when crossing the 
Delaware to his house in Camden, N. 
J. Mary Taylor, b. Sept. 13, 1770, 
VI. Jacob Clement, and died Aug. 18, 
1793, leaving Elizabeth, Samuel and 
Charles. Jacob Clement d. Dec. 24, 
1825, aged 71 years; his second wife 
was Hannah, a sister of his first wife, 
she died Jan. 6, 1847, without issue. 
Elizabeth, m. Elisha N. English ; they 
had, I am informed, three sons and 
two daughters, some of whom are liv- 
ing in Philadelphia. Bankson Taylor, 
shipping merchant of Philadelphia (in 
partnership with his brother-in law, 
Clement), married Hetty McWilliams^ 
daughter of Richard, of New Castle, 
Delaware ; she was a very handsome 
little lady, and an excellent performer 
on the piano ; she died Aug. 19, 1821, 
aged 37 years ; he died Dec. 26, 1836, 
aged 64 years and 3 months ; leaving 
Richard, (m. Emeline Kenton, ward 
of Stephen Girard, and died Dec, 
1855, leaving a widow and two daugh- 
ters, Emily and Annie ; he was a 
Brewer, 8th and Vine, Philadelphia,) 



and the following daughters, Mary 
and Louisa, who died in infancy. 
Hetty, ni. Francis King ; she died 
Sept. 13, 1876; they had Annie, 
Hetty M., and Mary B. m. Joseph H. 
Wainwright, in May 1875. -Rebecca, 
VI. Chauncy P. Holcomb, Esq., of the 
Philadelphia Bar, Jan. 10, 185 1 ; they 
removed to Delaware, and Mrs. H. 
died there, Nov. 4, 1851, leaving two 
sons, Bankson T. andJPhomas, now a 
member of the Bar, of New Castle, 
Delaware ; their father d. April 5, 
1855. Martha, vi. Franklin P. Hol- 
comb, of Georgia, and died April 28, 
1858, without issue. William B., ni. 
Ellen Jane Tingley, (daughter of Benj. 
and Elizabeth,)who died Feb. 19, 1872, 
leaving the following children : Eli- 
zabeth (;//. Frederick Addicks), Nellie, 
Alice, Anna and Bankson. Bankson 
Taylor's youngest son, Samuel, was 
drowned, by falling from Race Street 
Wharf into the Delaware. 

Elizabeth, daughter of Jacob and 
Hannah Bankson, b. Jan. 2, 1747-8, 
d. Dec. 24, 1 819, m. (ist) Capt. Daw- 
son Durham, a merchant captain, Aug. 
8, 1779 ; he went to sea 22 days after, 
and has never been heard of since. 
She married, 2d, Capt. William Wroth 
of the merchant service, Sept. 25, 
1783; they had three children, one 
only survived infancy, Sarah Mont- 
gomery, b. Feb. 19, 1785, d. Jan. 15, 
1861, m. (ist.) James McKeever, a 
merchant captain, Sept. 7, 181 7, and 
had a son, Wm. Murdock, who died 
in infancy ; she married, 2d, Walter 
Thompson, grocer, of Philadelphia, in 
1823; she being his second wife ; he 
died Jan. 29, 1854, leaving her sur- 
viving, and a son, Walter, andadaugh- 
ter Elizabeth B. Walter, b. Feb. 15, 
1824, ;;/. Eliza Cooper ; they had 
George, Walter and Georgiana, who 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



died youiiL;, and Mary Baxter, and 
Frederick Wolhert. Elizabeth B. ?n. 
William Martin, Jr., Aug. 3, 1848 ; 
and they had Walter Thompson, and 
Sallie Martin. Walter T. d. July 22, 
1876, aged 27 yrs. and 3 days. 

Sarah Bankson, dau. of Jacob and 
Hannah, b. Dec. 28, 1759, in. Joseph 
Huddell : and had issue, Bankson, who 
died in boyhood of hydrophobia, and 
Hannah, b. Sept. 13, 1792, tn. Rev. 
Charles M. Dupuy, an Episcopal min- 
ister, and died without issue, (and was 
buried in Christ Church grave-yard,) 
Dec, 16, 1851 ; she was educated at 
the Moravian school for girls, at Beth- 
lehem, Pa. Rev. Mr. Depuy d. in 
1875, and her real estate, consisting 
of a portion of the plantation of her 
g. g. grandfather, Andres Bengtsson, 
will be divided among her next of 
kin, living at her decease, in accord- 
ance with the provisions of the in- 
testate laws, which need a careful 
revision. After the death of his wife, 
Sarah, Joseph Huddell ni. (2d) Re- 
becca Matlack, by whom he had 
(ieorge, Joseph, Jr., the present Asst. 
Treasurer of the Philadelphia, Wil- 
mington and Baltimore R. R. Co., 
and Martha, Elizabeth and Wm. Penn 
Huddell. Joseph Huddell, d. Jan. 15, 
1820, in his 86th year ; and his widow, 
Rebecca, April 30, 1830, in her 8ist 
year. Their tombstone is near the 
south side of the belfry-steeple of St. 
Peter's Church. 

Rebecca Bankson, daughter of Ja- 
cob and Hannah, b. June 23, 1753, d. 
March, 1847, i'"* the 94th year of her 
age, immarried ; she was buried in 
the Bankson vault in St. Peter's Church 
yard, Philadelphia, being before her 
death the oldest living member of that 
church. She was familiary called 
"Aunt IJcfkv" l)v her relatives, and 



lived during many years of the latter 
period of her life with her sister Eliza- 
beth's daughter Sarah, at whose resi- 
dence, in Second Street below South, 
she died ; and by her will, dated July 
5, 1824, she devised all her estate to 
her niece, Hannah Huddell, and in 
case Hannah should die unmarried, 
the estate was to go to Bankson Tay- 
lor. 

Latrobe, in his history of Mason and 
Dixon's Line, given in an address be- 
fore the Historical Society of Pa., Nov. 
8, 1854, p. 34, mentions the north 
wall of a house on the south side of 
Cedar (now South) Street, in Phila- 
delphia, then occupied by Thomas 
Plumstead and Joseph Huddell as the 
point from which the line ran due 
west until it met the tangent line form- 
ing the western boundary of the State 
of Delaware, y^/rr;/ miles north of the 
line forming the southern boundary of 
Pennsylvania. Family tradition says : 
That Mr. Mason was entertained by 
Joseph Huddell during his stay in 
Philadelphia, and that a brother of J. 
H. was Mason's assistant in the survey. 
Mason and Dixon arrived at Philadel- 
phia, Nov. 15, 1763, and on Jan. 12, 
1764, they, together with their obser- 
vatory and instruments in wagons, 
"except the Telescope, i\:c., of the 
Sector, which was Carry'd on springs 
(with our Beds under it) of a Single 
Horse Chair," left Philadel]jhia on 
the work of surveying the boundary 
lines between the Provinces, and passed 
the night at Chester, and set out from 
there next morning for John Harland's, 
in the forks of the Brandywine, thirty- 
one miles west of, and having the same 
latitude as the southern point of Phila- 
deli)hia. 

John Welsh, who is mentioned as 
marrying Ann Bond, had issue John, 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



33 



(Who was a merchant captain at the 
age of 1 6 years, and has descendants 
in Philadelphia,) Ann, Mary and Mar- 
garet, my grandmother, formerly a 
resident of Chester ; she was b. Aug. 
26, 1763, d. Nov. 16, 1843, ^^ ^^ 
residence of her son-in-law, William 
Martin, Esq., and was buried in the 
vault of her husband in St. Peter's 
church yard. She was m. (ist) to 
Capt. McCarty, of the merchant ma- 
rine, and had a daughter Mary, who 
married a Frenchman named Lavalle ; 
they had a son, Adolphus, who died 
in infancy, and a daughter Veronique, 
a beautiful girl, who married and died 
in a decline two years afterwards, child- 
less. After the death of Capt. Mc- 
Carty, his widow married my grand- 
father, William Smith, Jr., a merchant 
of Philadelphia, an importer of sail 
cloth and Irish linens, doing business 
on Front Street, below Chestnut Street, 
where I was born. He was of English 
descent (son of William and Elizabeth,) 
of the Island of Bermuda, {b. Dec. 
3, 1758, d. April 22, 1818,) where, I 
believe, the descendants of Anthony 
Smith, his brother, yet reside, and 
have a large coffee and sugar planta- 
tion. My grandparents were married 
in Old Swedes Church, Dec. 24, 1784, 
and had issue, — Elizabeth, James, 
Ann, all of whom died young, Wil- 
liam, Joseph Welsh, George W., (who 
married Sophia Bartlett and had a 
daughter Sophia,) Charles, Margaret 
and Sarah Ann Smith, my mother. 
We had for many years a number of 
old account books which belonged to 
my grandfather, in which were ac- 
counts of sales of large (juantities of 
Russia duck, to Stephen Girard. He 
was also the owner of several vessels 
trading to the West India Islands, two 
of which were seized bv the French, 



and I have the proofs and papers in 
two old French claims against the 
United States Government for the 
losses of the vessels and their cargoes, 
amounting to a very large sum of mo- 
ney, which we never expect to recover. 
Congress has paid millions to South- 
erners, whose loyalty is very doubtful, 
for losses during the rebellion, but re- 
fuses to pay these just claims, for which 
they have received a compensation from 
France, and agreed to settle. The 
heirs of Bankson Taylor, a relative of 
my grandmother, are interested in one 
of these claims, which exceeds in 
amount $160,000, without interest. 
Grandfather Smith had a great dread 
of thunder and lightning, and during 
a thunder-storm would get all the fam- 
ily together and sit in a dark room. 
He would only allow white sugar to be 
used in his household : having been 
brought up on his father's sugar plan- 
tation in Bermuda;, he had a great dis- 
taste for brown sugar and molasses, 
which is not to be wondered at, as he 
had seen so much made. 

James Smith, his eldest son, b. Feb. 
18, 1787, m. Ann Paulding, of Salem, 
N. J., they had but two children, 
James, who died in infancy, and Wil- 
liam Smith, a well-known machinist, 
whose foundry is near 2 2d and Cherry 
Streets, Philadelphia, who married his 
cousin, Matilda Paulding, and has 
several children living. The family 
of Paulding's, are the descendants of 
i one of the captors of Maj. Andre, 
during the Revolution, and the late 
Theopholis Paulding, a brother of 
Mrs. James Smith, was for many years 
a Director of the Delaware (county) 
Mutual Safety Insurance Co., and a 
prominent Philadelphia merchant, of 
the late firm of Taylor & Paulding. 
The widf)w of James Smith, after 



34 



HISTORV OF CHESTER. 



the death of her husband, married a 
Mr. Hritton ; she was a lovely lady, 
both in person and disposition, and 
was affectionately called by her friends 
and relatives "Aunty Britton." 

William Smith, son of William and 
Margaret, b. May 19, 1790, vi. Mar- 
garet, daughter of Capt. John Wood, 
who lived in Third Street near Union ; 
they died without issue. Philadelphia 
at this time had a large trade with 
China, and the city had numerous 
merchant captains, for whom the la- 
dies of my grandmother's time seem 
to have had a great partiality. 

Mary Welsh, daughter of John (and 
Ann Bond,) died, childless, in 1824, 
and was buried in St. Martin's church 
yard, Marcus Hook ; by her will, duly 
proven in Philadel])hia, Feb. 19, 1824, 
she makes inter alia, certain bequests 
to " My dear sister, Margaret Smith, 
widow, and to her daughter, Maria 
Davis, Margaret Smith, Jr., and Sally 
Ann Martin, and my grand-daughter, 
Veronique, late Veronique Lavalle, the 
daughter of Mary Davis," &c. The 
witnesses to this will were, Deborah 
Logan, and her son, Alfred Sidney 
Logan, two of her friends, whom she 
often visited at Stenton. My grand- 
aunt carried on quite a correspondence 
with Mrs. Logan, but it is not known 
what became of her letters ; my mother 
remembers reading them, and speaks 
of their interesting character. 

Joseph W. Smith, my mother's bro- 
ther, b. Aug. 20, 1795, ^"- Ann Crosby, 
daughter of Dr. William Martin, of 
Chester (my father's sister), and had 
issue Wm. Martin and Pollen Crosby 
Smith. Margaret Smith, Jr. , my aunt, 
/'. July 28, 1798, ;//. C.raham Hoskins, 
a descendant of the Chester family of 
that name. Nearly all the persons 
named above have resided in Chester, 



or been frequent visitors there in the 
past ; those of the family who had no 
connection therewith, I have omitted 
to mention. In 1819, my grandmo- 
ther, Margaret Smith, removed from 
Philadelphia to Chester, and lived for 
two years at " Green Bank," (the old 
Lloyd mansion was so called) with her 
children Joseph W. and (my mother) 
Sarah Ann Smith. The river then 
came up to a sandy beach in front of the 
wall surrounding the old mansion to 
the south and west. The property was 
then owned by Commodore David 
Porter, it having been presented to 
him by Major Wm. Anderson, his 
father-in law, as a wedding gift. Some- 
time previous to my grandmother's 
occupation of "Green Bank," it had 
been the residence of Captain and 
Mrs. Muller, who lived there in great 
style, and entertained largely. After 
her husband's death, Mrs. Muller re- 
turned to Philadelphia to live, and 
kept a boarding-house in Chestnut 
Street, above Front, on the north side. 
My grandmother on leaving Chester, 
returned to Philadelphia, and occupi- 
ed the former residence of her husband. 
No. 48 South Front Street, where I 
was born. During her absence from 
the city, the dwelling-part of the house 
was rented for $500 a year. After my 
grandfather's death, April 22, 1818, 
grandmother purchased the house in 
Third Street, fourth door north of 
Spruce Street, west side, for $5,500, 
and lived there a short time before 
removing to Chester. Grandfather 
was, for many years, a pew-holder in 
St. Peter's Church, Third and Pine 
Streets, and there is a large tombstone 
over his remains in the grave-yard at- 
tached to that church. 

Joseph Parker, formerly a prominent 
citizen of Chester, was a nephew of 



IIlSTom' OF CHESTKl}. 



35 



John Salkeld, the well-known preacher 
of Friends. He was born in Cumber- 
land, England, and came to America 
in 1 714, and ma.de choice of Chester 
as his place of residence, in order to 
be near his uncle. He brought with 
him from Friends in England a certi- 
ficate, which was presented to Chester 
Monthly Meeting, on 11 mo. (Jan.) 
25, 1 713-14, and is recorded in the 
first volume of Marriage Certificates 
(at the other end of the book), p. 9, 
and reads as follows : "At our Month- 
ly Meeting, held by adjournment, at 
our meeting-house att Coldbeck, in 
Cumberland, in Great Britain, this 
20th day of the 7th mo., 1713 : To ; 
ffriends in Pensilvania, in America. 
After the Salutation of our Dearest 
Love to you in the unchangable truth, ' 
these are to give you to understand, 
that the bearer hereof, Joseph Parker, 
hath signified to this meeting his In- 
tentions of coming over into your 
country to settle amongst you, and after 
consideration of the matter, this meet- 
ing left him to his liberty. And we 
further signifie unto you, that he is a 
young man and was born of believing 
Parents, and hath been educated in 
the way of truth from his childhood, 
and his conversation hath been agree- 
able to his holy profession ; and we 
further Certify you, that he is in 
unity with us, and we give you further 
to understand, if it should be his Lott 
to marry amongst you, that this meet- 
ing is fully satisfied that he is clear of 
all women on that occasion, so shall 
conclude, desiring his prosperity in the 
truth and his wellfaire in that w"' will 
tend to his Everlasting peace. Signed 
on behalf of y* sd meeting by us. 



John Scott, 
John Sowerby, 
William Greeniipp, 
John Wilson, jr." 
6 



Tho. Parker, Parent, 
Thomas Prestman, 
Joseph Prestman, 
Joseph Peacock, 



At the time of his emigration, Joseph 
Parker was 25 years of age. He en- 
tered, at Chester, the office of David 
Lloyd, and after his death, succeeded 
him as Register and Recorder of Ches- 
ter County ; this position he held for 
many years. In 1724, he was in office 
as Prothonotary of the Courts and 
Clerk of the Peace of the county, and 
in 1738, was commissioned a Justice 
of the Peace. He m. Mary, daughter 
of John Ladd, of Gloucester County, 
New Jersey, May 21, 1730, she d. June 
4, 1 731, after giving birth to a daugh- 
ter, Mary, /;. April 29, 1731. Joseph 
Parker survived his wife many years, 
and d. May 21, 1766. He purchased 
and resided in the house on Filbert, 
now Second Street, known at a later 
day as the " Logan House," a fine old 
double brick building, still standing; it 
was erected I presume, by Jasper Yeates, 
as the deed for the "Green," from 
David Lloyd to Jasper Yeates, Sept. 
22, 1703, is endorsed, "FortheGreen 
before Jasper Yeates' door. ' ' Attached 
to the east of this house, there used to 
stand a one-story brick office, which 
it was said Squire Parker occupied for 
office purposes ; at a later date, it was 
used for a school-house for small chil- 
dren. 

Writing, Dec. 6, 1813, Mrs. Debo- 
rah Logan, says: "To those of my 
family who may think as I do, the fol- 
lowing particulars of my dear mother's 
family will not be unacceptable. 

Her father, Joseph Parker, came 
over to this country pretty early in the 
last century ; he had received a good 
English education ; was born in York- 
shire, Great Britain, where his father 
possessed a freehold estate. The rigor 
and hard usage of a mother-in-law, 
forced him to emigrate, and he loved 
his half brother (her son) who would 



II ISlOi; 'i OF CllKSTKH. 



l)c hcncfital by his absence. Upon 
his arrival, he landed at Chester, and 
Judge Lloyd, who lived there, took 
him into his office as his secretary. 
His integrity and good conduct, soon 
made him respected, and lie acipiired 
property, (not as it is now done by 
speculation, and over-reaching of oth- 
ers, but by prudence and honest indus- 
try) : he enjoyed many public offices 
in the county and was much respected 
by the Government and his fellow- 
citizens. After some years he married 
Mary Ladd, the daughter of a respect- 
able family in New Jersey, and received 
a handsome fortune with her ; but this 
hajjpiness was soon interrupted, for 
she died a few days after the birth of 
her first child, who was my mother. 
He used to say, that he was deterred 
from the thoughts of a second marriage 
by the recollection of his own suffer- 
ings under a bad mother-in-law. He 
might, he .said, get a wife for himself, 
but was not sure of getting a mother 
for his child. My mother repaid this 
kindness by being the best of daugh- 
ters, and they lived together in a har- 
mony and friendship the most delight- 
ful. I have frequently heard her speak . 
of the happiness of her early life, the i 
state of society, sociability, kindness j 
and good neighborhood that was j 
among them, seemed to realize the 
golden age. The young people had 
enjoyed uncommon advantages in their 
education, from the settlement among 
them of some persons cmincnth' (|ual- 
ified to benefit others. 

The mother of Henry Hale Graham ' 
was one of these ; she was a woman of 
excellent sense, a gentlewoman born, 
and had received the best education 
herself, in Englantl. She was like a 
parent to my mother and the other 
young persons of th;U time, at ("lies- 



' ter, who enjoyed greater advantages 
j than could be found in most other 
I places. 

j My mother was an excellent woman 
I and of very good abilities ; she had 
I received a much better education than 
{ was usually bestowed on daughters, 
j when she was young. Her mind was 
j enriched by acquaintance with the 
I best authors, her memory was uncom- 
j monly good, her disposition cheerful 
and her conversation instructive and 
entertaining. She was solid, prudent, 
affectionate and benevolent. The 
manner in which she conducted her- 
self after the decease of her husband 
and the very able manner in which she 
investigated and settled his affairs se- 
cured her the kindest friendship of her 
family, and the esteem and a])])lause 
of all who knew her. ' ' 

From the geneological table of the 
Norris family, MS., I extract the fol- 
lowing information, viz. : That Charles 
Norris, was the 12th child of Isaac 
Norris, the elder, and Mary Lloyd ; he 
was born in the " Slate-roof house," 
Philadelphia, May 9, 1712, ///., ist, 
Margaret Rodman, of Burlington, N. 
J., who died, childless, in 1752 ; he 
;//. 2ndly, 6 mo. 21, 1759, at Chester 
Meeting, Mary, the only child of Jo- 
sei)h and Mary Parker, of that county. 
Charles Norris died Jan. 15, 1766. 
A few years after the death of her hus- 
band, Mrs. Norris returned to the pa- 
ternal mansion at Chester, where she 
died Dec. 4, 1799, in the 69th year of 
her age, and was buried in Friends' 
grounds at Chester, beside her parents' 
remains. They had issue, Isaac, Deb- 
orah, Joseph Parker, and Charles Nor- 
ris. Their only daughter, Deborah, 
b. Oct. 19, 1 761, ;;/. Sept. 6, 1781. 
Dr. George Logan, of Stenton, son 
of William, and grand-son of James 



HISTORY OF CHESTEK. 



37 



Logan, Secretary of the Province from 
1701 to 1726, President of tJie Supreme 
Executive Council from 1736 to 1738. 
Dr. Logan d. April 9, 1821, aged 61 
years. From 1801 to 1807, he was a 
member of the Senate of this State. 
His widow died Feb. 2, 1839, in her 
78th year. They had issue, Albanus 
Charles, Gustavus George, and Alger- 
non Sidney Logan. 

The only living representatives of 
the old Chester family of Parker are, 
ist, The descendants of the late Alba- 
nus Charles {b. Nov. 22, 1783, d. Feb. 
10, 1854) and Maria (Dickinson) Lo- 
gan ; Gustavus George and Algernon 
Sidney Logan, having died without 
issue ; 2ndly, The descendants of 
Charles and Eunice Gardiner Norris ; 
and 3rdly, The descendants of Joseph 
Parker and Elizabeth Hill Norris, (nee 
Fox.) Isaac Norris, Jr., the third of 
the name, having died without issue. 

Isaac Norris the elder, the founder 
of the family in Pennsylvania, born in 
London, England, July 26, 1671. was 
a son of Thomas Norris, a merchant 
of that city, and Mary Moore, his 
wife, whu emigrated, with his family, 
to Jamaica, in 1678, and lost his life 
in the great earthquake which destroy- 
ed Port Royal, June 7. 1692. His 
son, Lsaac, being at that time in Penn- 
sylvania. Isaac Norris, the first, was 
an Elder of the Society of Friends, a 
director, or overseer, and promoter of 
the first Public School in Philadelphia 
(a free school for Friends, was first in- 
corporated, by charter, in 1697. See 
Proud' s Pa., vol. i. p. 343), S])eaker 
of the Assembly in 171 2 and in 1720, 
Mayor of the City in 1724, Member 
of the Assembly, a member of the Gov- 
ernor's Council and a Trustee under 
William Penn's will. He died at 
Meeting, in 1735. ^^ 173^' '"i^" ^^'^■'^ 



appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Provincial Court, but declined. David 
Paul Brown, in his Forum, speaks of 
Isaac Norris, John Morton and others, 
as having been " Chief Justices of the 
Common Pleas;" there never was any 
such dignity in the Common Pleas, 
and the names of the presiding judges 
before the time of Alexander Stead- 
man, in 1759, are unknown. Isaac 
Norris \\as appointed a Justice of the 
Peace and of the Courts, in 1715, and 
i at a later day may have, by virtue of 
! his commission, been the Presiding 
Justice. Isaac Norris, the second, his 
son, was a man of much learning, a 
Hebrew scholar, having been partially 
educated in Europe. He was an Al- 
derman of Philadelphia, a member of 
the Assembly, and its Speaker from 
1750 to 1765, except during periods 
of his sickness. Benjamin Chew, was 
elected Speaker in 1756, but being 
called to the Governor's Council, Nor- 
ris was elected. 



VL 



The Swedes do not seem ever to 
have had any difiiculties with the In- 
dians occupying the banks of the Del- 
aware. They were ever treated by 
the Indians with the greatest consider- 
ation. In relation to this, the Rev. 
Eric Biofk states : " The Indians and 
we are one people ; we li^■e in much 
greater friendship with them, than 
with the English ; they call the Swedes 
in their language, their own people." 
William Penn looked upon the Swedish 
l)eoi)le as the original settlers of the 
Province, pioneers in the path of 
adventure and privation. Upon his 
landing at Upland, he was received 
by them, as he says himself, "with 
(jreat kindness." The Swedes on that 



38 



HISTORY OF CHESTEK. 



ciciasion, as a distinct jicoplc, deputed 
Lacv ("ock to address the Troprietor 
on their l)elKiir. He assured Penn 
that the Swedes "would love, serve, 
and obey him with all they had," de- 
claring, " it was the best day they ever 
saw." And Penn, in his description 
of the Swedes, given in a letter to the 
Society of Traders, in London, under 
date 6 mo. (Aug.,) 1683, says that, 
'''I'he first planters in these parts were 
the Dutch, and soon after them the 
Swedes and Finns. The Dutch appli- 
ed themselves to trafifick, the Swedes 
and Finns to husbandry. The Dutch 
inhabit mostly those i)arts of the Pro- 
vince that lie upon or near the Bay, 
the Swedes the freshes of the river 
Delaware. They are a ])Iain, strong, 
industrious people, yet have made no 
great progress in the culture or ]jropa- 
gation of fruit trees ; as if they desired 
rather to have enough, than plenty, or 
for traffick ; but I presume the Indians 
made them more careless by furnish- 
ing them with the means of profit, to 
wit : skins and furs, in exchange for 
rum and such strong liquors. They 
kindly received me as well as the Eng- 
lish, who were but few, before the 
people who were concerned with me 
came among them. I must need com- 
mend their respect to authority, and 
their kind behavior to the English. 
They do not degenerate from the old 
friendship between both kingdoms. 
.Vs they are a people proper and strong 
of body, so they have fine children, 
and almost every house is full. It is 
rare to find one of them without three 
or four boys, and as many girls, some 
six, seven and eight sons ; and I must 
do them that right to say, I see few 
young men more sober and laborious." 
The Swedes before Penn's time never 
settled far from tide water: one of 



their writers says, that at Christina, 
none of them settled more than a 
Swedish mile from the Fort, which 
is six and two-thirds English miles. 
Their places of worship, and most of 
their dwellings, w^ere always built on 
the shore of some navigable stream, so 
that they might go to church, or visit 
each other in boats. 

Captain Lasse Cock was, in 1683, 
chosen by William Penn, as a member 
of his Council, and in the first Assem- 
bly, two of the members were Swedes, 
namely : Anders Bengtsson and Sven 
Svensson. After Penn's authority was 
firmly established in the Province, the 
Sw^edes were left at liberty in their 
church discipline, which was not so 
before. 

The homes of the early Swede set- 
tlers were very rude affairs, built of 
logs, and generally consisted of only 
one room, the door so low as to require 
the occupants to stoop on entering or 
leaving the house. Their windows 
were very small, square holes, cut in 
the logs, without glass, sometimes they 
had window frames with isinglass in 
them, but oftener, they had only a 
sliding board before the opening, 
which was i)ushed back during the 
day, and closed at night ; a very bad 
arrangement in cold weather. The 
chimneys were in the corner, built of 
grey sandstone, sometimes they were 
outside of, and erected against the 
gable end of the house. Some few of 
these old log cabins are yet standing. 
The kitchen part of the residence of 
the late John F. Hill, at the " Island 
field,^'' on little Crum Creek, where he 
lived about 1850, was one of these 
primitive structures. It consists of one 
large room, and two very small ones, 
on the ground floor, the latter used as 
closets then, but formerlv. no doubt 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



39 



bed rooms. The up stairs is a mere 
cock-loft, one large room, where the 
farm hands used to sleep. When I went 
to Ridley school at Little Crum Creek 
bridge, to Christopher W. Steele, about 
1834, there stood near the school- 
house, and near the bridge on the 
north side of the old post road, one of 
these " Old Log Cabins," as they were 
then called. It has just been torn 
down, and a handsome brick house, 
with a Mansard roof, erected on its 
site. In 1859 or i860, when we lived 
just east of Ridley .school-house, at 
Lewis Cjarrett's old place, (then be- 
longing to the widow of James Mc- 
Cormick), the old log house mention- 
ed, constituted a part of the residence 
of Thomas McCullough, who died 
there Oct. 16, 1866, aged 94 years. 
He was a very remarkable man, over 
six feet in height, and noted for his 
strength, which he retained until a few 
days before his death ; when he felled 
a large tree, and cut it up for winter 
use with his axe. It is thought that 
the exertion he then made, caused his 
death. He was of Scotch-Irish de- 
scent, and most of his life in the em- 
ploy of the Leiper family, and followed 
ditching ; that is digging the ditches 
by which the meadows along the Del- 
aware are drained of water. In 1814, 
he enlisted in Captain James Serrill's 
company of Delaware County Fenci- 
bles, and was honorably mustered out 
of service with his company. 

In the village of Leiperville, there 
once stood another of these log cabins, 
on the road leading north to Westdale, 
owned and occupied by Joel Lane, 
"the village blacksmith," his wife, 
son and daughter. I passed the spot 
lately, but the old log house had dis- 
appeared, and a neat frame occupied 
its site, and the ancient Thorn hedge 



had given place to a luxuriant hedge 
of Osage orange. I am sorry to see the 
Thorn hedges giving way to the Osage 
orange. There is still standing near 
the bridge over Darby Creek, leading 
to Tinicum and the Lazaretto, two of 
these ancient structures, one of which is 
in good condition, the other dilapidat- 
ed ; no doubt it is quite 200 years old. 
Before the bridge was erected, there 
was a rope ferry there, called Morris 
Ferr-y, and when I was a boy, old Mr. 
Morris' parents occupied the more an- 
cient structure ; such is my recollec- 
tion. When quite young, I used to 
visit Philip Morris, one of my school- 
mates at Ridley school ; a boyish visit 
in those days, meant several days, 
generally from a Friday, after school, 
until Monday morning, when both 
boys went to school again. 

The log house mentioned as still 
standing at Morris' ferry is, no doubt, 
one of the houses indicated on Holmes' 
map, published in 1684, and was the 
residence then of Morten Morten, or 
of John Cornelus. Their tract was 
bounded on the west l)y the tract of 
John Henreckson, and on the east by 
the Muckinipatus, and the tract east of 
that was owned by Hans Urin, Morten 
Morten, and Moun Stoker, and called 
Calcoon Hook, and the tract west of 
John Henreckson is laid down to 
Henrick Jortin, from whom the Jordan 
family are, perhaps, descended. 

The Swedes dressed in vests and 
breeches made of the skins of animals, 
and they wore on the head, hair-skin 
caps. They made their own .shoes, the 
soles and upper of the same materials. 
They were more like the Indian moc- 
casins than our shoes. The women 
wore jackets and petticoats also made 
of skins ; the covering for their beds, 
were the skins of deers, beavers, bears 



40 



HISTORY OF CHESTEK. 



or wolves. The wolves were very nu- 
merous, l)eing attracted by the domes- 
tic animals. Leather breeches were 
very common about fifty years ago, in 
the vicinity of Chester ; and at a later 
day, when I was a boy living in Rid- 
ley, I have seen old-fashioned men 
wearing them. I i^articularly remem- 
ber that the father of the late Henry 
I'^ffinger wore leather breeches ; his 
name was Jacob, I believe. An hun- 
dred years ago, a calf-skin vest and 
jacket, and buck-skin breeches, was 
not an uncommon dress. It was eco- 
nomical, and its protection in winter, 
may account for the health and long 
life of the people, " in the good, old 
(lays of Adam and of Eve." 

The more modern houses of the de- 
scendants of the Swedes, which took 
the i)lace of the log cabins, were very 
comfortable and very picturesque. 
There is a \ery good specimen of ' 
one still standing, in a dila])idated 
condition, at Crum Creek station, on I 
the old line of the Philadeli)hia, Wil- 
mington and Baltimore Railroad, built 
of stone, with a high, double or curb | 
roof. It was the residence of Richard 
Crosby, about 1750, a grandson of the 
first settler of the same name. These 
houses in the country were generally 
built of stone, one story and a half 
high, with garret rooms on the second 
floor, lighted by windows in the gable. 
The one referred to, however, has three i 
dormer windows in the lower curb 
root". In the towns they were erected 
of red and black gla/ed brick, regularly 
intermixed, giving them a very pleas- 
ant ajjpearance. Our English ances- 
tors erected the same kind of houses, 
with curb roof, when they first settled 
here. One of the chief peculiarities 
of these sul)stantial old structures, was 
the large open fnv -phu es in the kitch- 



en, with large cranes, from whi( h hung 
great iron pots used for cooking, boil- 
ing water, &c., and the huge back-logs 
used in, and the immense fires kept up 
in, these old fire-places night and day, 
around which the servants of the houses 
all gathered of a cool evening, some 
even sitting on the ends of the back- 
log, while ghost and fairy tales were 
told ; these are memories of my child- 
hood ; for I used to steal away to the 
kitchen fire, despite the admonitions of 
my grandmother. The consmnption 
of wood in old times was enormous, 
but it was very plentiful ; great piles 
of wood could then be seen near every 
country house. The "wood pile," 
was an institution. The wood was 
all cut and sj)Iit for use with the axe. 
The large back-logs were hauled from 
the woods by yokes of oxen, generally 
after the snow had fallen. 

From Lewis' History, 1 extract the 
statement respecting the abodes of early 
English settlers in Chester County. 

•' Their hiiuses — if the teniporan- huts erect- 
ed by the first settlers deserve the name — were 
of the most inferior kind. The general plan of 
the construction of these, was furnished by 
William Penn. They were about thirty feet 
long, and eighteen feet wide, with a partition 
in the middle. When the shell was up, the 
hut was to ]>e covered and defended on the 
outside by clap-boards, and lined by the same 



within. The 
the external ( 



mtervenmg s]>ace 
)vering and the insii 



)et\veen 
lining. 



was to be filled with earth to keep out the 
frost and cold. The ground floor was to con- 
sist of clay, the upper of wood, and a clap- 
board roof was to cover the whole. Many of 
the cabins were madeof much ruder construc- 
tion, and instead of clap-l>oards, logs were 
used for the ends and sides, and thatch for the 
roofs. The chimneys, down which much of the 
light came, were of wood, the windows of the 
better sort of houses, paper ; of the more in- 
ferior, blocks of wood, made to fit the cases. 
That they inhabited caves, is a historical fact. 
•::- * 'i -piie caves of whicli we often liear, 



HISTORY OF CHESTEK. 



41 



were in general, I believe, only the temporary 
residence of the first emigrants. A few were 
inhabited a number of years, and large families 
raised in them." 

He mentions a settler by the name 
of Hickman, as having lived in one of 
these caves, and raised a large family. 
The people in those days had no wagons 
on their farms; they used drags. Mr. 
Lewis also says : 

"An old woman at Chester, who remember- 
ed seeing Lord Cornbury, (Governor of Jersey 
in 1702,) at that place, observed him with par- 
ticular attention, because he was the Queen's 
cousin, and a Lord, but could find no difference 
between him and those she had been accustom- 
ed to see, but that he wore leather stockings. 
( William Penn speaks of his leather stockings. ) 
They were probably an ugly rarity." 

The Indian tribe living along the 
banks of the Delaware was called the 
Lenni-Lenape, i. c, the Original peo- 
ple ; the river in their language was 
named the '^ Lenape Whittiick,^^ or the 
rapid stream of the Lenape. My father 
(William Martin/) called his mill and 
residence upon Chester Creek, "Zc//- 
ni Mills;'" and the Philadelphia and 
West Chester, and the Chester Creek 
Railroads, that now pass the place, on 
the opposite side of the creek, call their 
stopping place at that point, " Leiuii 
Statioti. ' ' My father' s old friend Davis 
B. Stacey, who once lived one mile east 
of Lenni, near Rockdale, named his 
residence '•^ Mount Lenape.'" The pres- 
ent owner of the place has re-named it 
Glen Riddle, and by that name the 
Railroad station at Lenape is now 
known. As Samuel Riddle, the exten- 
sive manufacturer, is the owner of that 
beautiful spot, (where I passed many 
happy days, when it was the residence 
of that estimable, courteous gentleman, 
Mr. Stacey,) its new name is accounted 
for, and is much more euphoneous than 



the names of many of the Railroad sta- 
tions. 

The name of Stacey will be found 
among the very first English settlers on 
the Delaware. On the 28th of Novem- 
ber, 1678, Andross directs Sheriff Cant- 
well to put Robert Stacey in possession 
of Mattiniconk Island, which the Gov- 
ernor had leased to him for seven years. 
The Stacey' s of Chester do not, how- 
ever, claim descent from the settler. 
The late Mr. Davis B. Stacey was, how- 
ever, the descendant of an old Chester 
family on the maternal side. He was 
a true gentleman of the old school, and 
one of the most entertaining and agree- 
able companions it was possible to meet 
with. He was at one time a prosper- 
ous merchant in Philadelphia, and in 
his younger days had travelled much 
in Europe. At the time of his death, 
and for many years previously, he had 
been the Secretary of the "American 
Mutual Insurance Company" of Phil- 
adelphia, of which the late William 
Craig was President. 

The following account of the family 
of Stacey of Chester, quite full and 
interesting, was furnished me by one 
of the family: 

"John Bevan,*or John Ap, as he was 
sometimes called, was born in Glamor- 
ganshire, Wales, in 1646; being the 
eldest of five children. His parents, 
who were wealthy, died while he was 
quite young. Being the heir, when he 
arrived at age he found himself in pos- 
session of a large estate, while his bro- 
thers were unprovided for — his only 
sister being dead. His strong sense 
of justice at once induced him to por- 
tion all his brothers, and to give them 
a helpful subsistence in the world. In 
1665 he was married to a strict member 

*John Bevan, /. e. Ap Evan, that is, John, 
the son of Evan. 



•lli 



IIISTOKY OF CHEST EH. 



of ihe cstahlislied church, who when 
her husband had shown a disposition 
to become a Quaker was distressed, and 
felt it to be her (Uity to interpose her 
serious objections. They argued the 
([uestion without result ; but the in- 
discretion of the priest, in pronouncing 
the sentence of excommunication, w^ith- 
out previous notice, against the husband 
in the presence of the wnfe, so shocked 
her feelings as to nearly make her faint 
away, and after a time made her will- 
ing unto the mighty w^ork of Salvation. " 
They both became Quakers, and in the 
language of their certificates, were re- 
garded as a nursing father and a nurs- 
ing mother to the spiritually weak and 
young of their neighborhood. 

In 1683, John Bevan with his family 
removed to Pennsylvania, and settled 
either in Merion or Haverford, Dela- 
ware county, his land being located in 
both townships. He had been a pillar of 
the meeting he left, and was equally so 
of Haverford meeting, w'hich he aided 
in establishing, and which was frequent- 
ly held at his house in its infancy. 

He stood high as a preacher in the 
society, and the records of Haverford 
attest his constancy and efficiency, in 
the promotion of works of benevolence i 
and charity. While in this country he 
travelled much as a minister, and in 
1 704 visited his native land ' ' on truth's 
account," accompanied by his wife and 
youngest daughter Barbara, who was 
also a preacher. He never returned to 
America, but after suffering some per- 
secutions, being im])risoned in Cardiff 
jail in 1721; he died shortly after- 
wards. 

He had four children married in 
Pennsylvania. His daughter Jane to 
John Wood of Darby in 1687; his 
daughter Elizabeth to Joseph Richard- 
son of Philadeli)hia, 1696 ; hisson P^van 



to Eleanor Wood of Darby, in 1693; 
and one other. 

Aubrey Bevan, son of Evan Bevan 
and Eleanor Wood, b. June 1705, m. 
Ann Davis of Darby, in 1732. They 
had six children : Mary b. in Chester, 
April 4, 1733, '''• to Nathanial Forbes, 
d. in Germantown, Feb. 22, 181 7. 
Katharine, b. in Chester, March 16, 
1734, d. March, 1744. Tacy, /;. Dec. 
12, i']2,(>,fn- to Thomas Pryor of Phila- 
delphia. "A woman of much excel- 
lence, w^hose memory is still dear to 
those who knew her. ' ' ( Old family Bi- 
ble.') Davis b. at Chester, Aug. 16, 
1738, 7n. to Agnes Cowpland, daughter 
of David Cowpland, June 12, 1760, d. 
Mar. 30, 1818. Jane b. July 1741, d. 
Aug. II, 1742. Alice (^. Oct. 24, 1743, 
d. Nov. 15, 1743. Davis Bevan was a 
member of the Society of Friends, but ^ 
was read out of meeting for joining the 
Revolutionary army, in which he held a 
commission as Captain of Artificers. 
He was with Washington at the battle of 
Brandywine in 1777, and after the de- 
feat of the American forces he carried 4. 
dispatches from General Washington 
to the President of the Continental 
Congress, then sitting in Philadelphia, 
announcing the result of the engage- 
ment. A gentleman by the name of 
Sharp accompanied Capt. Bevan. Af- 
ter proceeding some distance from the 
army they observed they were pursued 
by a party of British light horse. Mr. 
Sharp was not so well mounted as Capt. 
Bevan, who had a thoroughbred mare 
of great action and endurance. Find- 
ing that the light horse were gaining 
on them constantly, and that Mr. Sharj) 
would persist in urging his nag up the 
hills in spite of his advice to the con- 
trary, Capt. Bevan said, "Sharp, if we 
keep together our capture is certain^ 
therefore I think vou had better take 



HISTORY OF CHESTEK. 



43 



the next cross road that we come to, 
and I will continue on. They will fol- 
low me, but I am confident they can- 
not capture me." This proposal was 
agreed to, and as soon as Mr. Sharp 
had turned off Capt. Sevan gave the 
rein to his mare, and his pursuers soon 
finding themselves distanced, gave up 
the chase. When Capt. Bevan reach- 
ed the Schuylkill during the night, he 
found, owing to a heavy freshet, the 
ferry boat was either unable to run, or 
had been carried down the river. A 
boatman, however, rowed him over, 
while his mare swam by the side of the 
boat. He landed safely on the Phila- 
delphia shore, and replacing his saddle, 
he hastened to deliver his dispatches. 
This officer had various adventures, and 
often ran great risks while the Ameri- 
can army was at Valley Forge. On one 
occasion he went to visit his wife at the 
house of a Mr. Vernon, where she had 
come from Philadelphia for the purpose 
of seeing him. Mr. Vernon's house 
was but a short distance from the Brit- 
ish lines, and it was therefore neces- 
sary that considerable caution should 
be excercised to prevent capture by the 
numerous parties of British foragers 
scouring the country. Mr. Vernon's 
sons were posted around the house at 
convenient points for observation to 
give warning of the approach of ene- 
mies, and Capt. Bevan went to bed. 
About the middle of the night one of 
the boys came to his room, and inform- 
ed him him that a mounted party were 
approaching the house, and he had bet- 
ter prepare to take his departure. Be- 
ing rather an obstinate man he did not 
seem to believe the report, but present- 
ly another picket came in and told him 
that he would certainly be captured if 
he remained any longer. He sprang 
out of bed, hurried on his regimentals, 



and reached the back door just as the 
British party knocked at the front. He 
got to the stable, where he found his 
mare already saddled, and leading her 
out and mounting, he leaped the farm- 
yard enclosure, and being perfectly 
familiar with the country he had no 
difficulty in evading his enemies. 

The crew of the Brigantine Holker 
was enlisted at Chester, by Capt. Davis 
Bevan, to sail as a privateer. He was 
Captain of Marines. The Holker was 
commanded by Capt. Matthew Law- 
ler, his son-in-law, and captured some 
valuable prizes, one laden with lead 
which was invaluable to the army, as 
at that time the supply for making bul- 
lets was about exhausted. Most of the 
enlistments were made in July, 1 779, as 
appears by the receipt book of Captain 
Bevan, now in possession of the Dela- 
ware County Institute of Science. The 
bounty paid for a single cruise was from 
^50 to ^100, most probably Continen- 
tal money. 

Davis Bevan had six children, Ann 
b. June 5, 1761, m. Capt. Matthew 
Lawler, afterwards Mayor of Philadel- 
phia, d. in Cincinnati, Mar. 25, 1835. 
David b. Dec. 28, 1763, m. Jane Shaw, 
widow,* d. Aug. 21, t8i2. Aubrey b. 
Dec. 31, 1765. Isabella /;. Mar. 16, 
1767, d. x\pril 6, 1822. TacyAnna/;. 
Nov. 15, 1774, ///. George Stacey> 

-"• John .Sharpless, son of John and Jane, 
the original seUlers near Chester, Pa., married 
Hannah Pennell, daughter of Robert, in 1692. 
Their son Daniel married Sarah, daughter of 
Bartholomew and Phoebe Coppock, of Spring- 
iield, in the year 1736. Their eldest son, 
Thomas Sharpless, married Martha, daughter 
of Jonas and Jane Preston of Chester, 1764, 
and settled near Chester. Jane, the daughter 
of Thomas and Martha Sharpless, married first 
James Shaw, son of Samuel and Hannah of 
Chester, and secondly she married David Be- 
van, son of David and Agnes of Chester, in 
1803, and they settled there. She was dis- 
owned 9 mo. 23, 1796, for marrying out of 
meeting. 



44 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



cither in I 796 or I 797, ^/. in J'hila., July 
22, 1831, and Matthew Lawler Bevan, 
b. Aug. 23, 1779, in. Deborah . 

Captain Bevan was a very liberal 
man, and jjresented the ground to the 
Government upon which the upper pier 
in Chester is now built, also the bury- 
ing-ground for the jioor in Welsh street, 
near the former residence of Commo- 
dore David Porter, of Essex fame. 

George Stacey, the husband of Tacy 
Anna Bevan, was the son of George and 
Susannah Stacey, and born in Salem, 
Massachusetts, in May, 1764. He was 
admitted to Harvard College in the 
summer of 1780, being sixteen years of 
age at the time. He graduated in the 
Academical dejjartment in 1784. He 
was a descendant of the Rev. Joseph Sta- 
cey, who came to this ( ountry in the 
Speedwell, a ship that arrived here 
shortly after the Mayflower, or accom- 
j)anied her. (ieorge Stacey's mother 
was twice married. Her son by a pre- 
vious marriage — Major Swasey — was 
an officer in the Revolutionary army, 
and fought at Bunker Hill. 

George Stacey studied law and prac- 
tised it in Biddeford, Maine, in the 
early part of his life. He was appoint- 
ed by John Adams, in one of the last 
acts of his administration, U. S. Con- 
sul to the Isle of France, which was re- 
voked by Mr. Jefferson when he became 
President. He traveled a great deal 
and spent some time with the celebra- 
ted Count Rumford in Germany. Af- 
ter his return to America, he married 
Tacy Anna Bevan, by whom he had 
three children, viz : James George, b. 
Oct. 24, 1796; Davis Bevan, b. June 
4, 1798, and a daughter who died at 
birth. In 1807 he had a contract to 
supply the Spanish garrison at St. Au- 
gustine with i)rovisions, also other 
forces of that nation, and went to IHor- 



ida for the pur})Ose, taking with liim 
his wife and two sons The embargo 
was laid by Mr. Jefferson. George 
Stacey sent his wife and children home, 
hoping to follow them soon, but in his 
efforts to get his vessels into the United 
States, by exposure to the night air on 
the St. John's River, in Florida, he con- 
tracted the yellow fever, from which he 
died Oct. i, 1808, at St. Mary's, Geor- 
gia. His wife and two sons went home 
to her father — David Bevan — who be- 
came a devoted guardian to the boys, 
and was loved by them as a second fa- 
ther. They lived in the house now 
owned by Dennis Clark, and used as 
a confectionery. James George, and 
Davis Bevan Stacey received good ed- 
ucations. Their first tutor was a priest 
in St. Augustine, Florida. They 
afterwards went to school to Samuel 
Lytle a school-master of Chester, and 
they were later taught by their grand- 
father, who was a man of education, 
and they both added greatly to their 
knowledge by hard study and travel. 
J. G. Stacey went into business in the 
house of his uncle, Matthew L. Bevan. 
The firm was known as Bevan & Por- 
ter. D. B. Stacey went in the house 
of Whitton P^vans, shipping merchant 
of Philadelphia. The boys afterwards 
established a shipping house of their 
own, the firm being known as J. G. & D. 
B. Stacey, and they finally became the 
largest ship owners of Philadelphia of 
their time. No two men probably, had 
a greater faculty of endearing them- 
selves to their employees. The writer 
of this has seen old ship captains, who 
sailed vessels for them, shed tears when 
speaking of the kindness and liberality 
of the firm. They were like fathers to 
their clerks, and tlie \oung men edu- 
cated in their ( ounting-rooni always 
re( urred to that period as the most 



HISTOKY OF CllESTEK 



45 



happy in their lives, and were extrava- 
gant in their expressions of respect and 
gratitude. Like most other merchants 
they met with great misfortunes; one 
of their ships, the "Edward Bomfy," 
was destroyed by fire, with a large and 
valuable cargo of cotton. She was on 
fire at sea seven days with everything 
battened down, and the crew living on 
deck, finally reaching port, and when 
the hatches were raised she burned like 
a tinder box. The "John Sergeant," 
a very fine, new ship, named after the 
celebrated Philadelphia lawyer and 
statesman, was lost by Captain Chris- 
topher Van Dycke, brother-in-law of 
D. B. Stacey, on Turk's Island, where 
she was bound for a cargo of salt. 
The dangerous currents of that part of 
the ocean were not so well known then 
as now, and being unknown to her cap- 
tain, who was an experienced and com- 
petent navigator, she was set out of her 
course. They lost several other large 
vessels about the same time, which all 
coming together was more than they 
were able to bear, and they suspended 
business, although their friends came 
forward in the handsomest manner and 
begged them to continue. 

James George Stacy married Hannah 
Weyman of New York, in 1826. In 
1826 they removed from Philadelphia, 
where they resided, to New York, where 
Mr. Stacey engaged in business. He 
cbed near Geneva, N. Y., in 1855, 
leaving behind him his widow, four 
sons and five daughters. 

The mother of Hannah Weyman was 
Ibbe, (Isabella,) Cowpland, of Marcus 
Hook, where she resided with Dr. 
Caleb Smith Sayres, and there met and 
married Mr. Weyman, of New York. 
Mrs. Weyman was a step-daughter of 
Peter Salkeld, who lived near Marcus 
Hook, east of the creek ; he was a de- 



scendant of John Salkeld, the celebrated 
preacher of Friends, a son of Thomas 
of Coldbeck, Cumberland, England, 
b. 1672, in. 9 mo. 8th, 1704, Agnes 
Powley, daughter of Edmund, b. 1678 ; 
sailed with his wife for America, 7 mo. 
9th, 1705, and produced a certificate 
to Chester Monthly Meeting, 12 mo. 
25th, following. He was a farmer and 
maltster ; occupied 400 acres of land 
near Chester; d. 9 mo. 20th, 1739, 
aged 67 yrs. 9 mos. and 4/lays ; his wife 
d. \\ mo. 1 2th, 1748, aged 70 yrs. 10 
mos. and 26 days ; both buried in 
Friends' grounds at Chester. They 
had issue : Joseph, Mary, John, Thom- 
as, Agnes, Edmund, William, David, 
Samuel, Jane and Jonathan. Agnes 
m. Thomas Minshall, and Jane m. his 
brother Moses in 1 741 . They had one 
child, Edmund, and resided in Chester, 
where Edward Minshall, their descend- 
ant, the present coroner of Delaware 
County, resides. 

" A recent niiml^er of the Bridgelon Chroni- 
cle, N. J., 1874, contains a short sketch of the 
life of John Salkeld, an aged citizen of that 
city, in which it is stated he was born, Feb- 
28, 1792, in a house between Chester and 
Marcus Hook. In 1810 he went to Bridge- 
ton, and during that year returned to his birth- 
place and cut the \\ indow frames of the house 
he yet lives in, and took them to Kridgeton in 
a sloop. In 1838 he was appointed a Justice 
of the Peace, and at the close of the same year 
was re-appointed to the same office for ten 
years, and it is said not a single appeal was 
ever made from his decisions. In 1840 he 
was appointed an Assistant Judge of Cumber- 
land County, and in 1846 elected coroner of 
the same county. During his term of office 
he received in fees exactly one dollar. In 
1814, Mr. Salkeld attached himself to the 
Methodist church, and since that time has 
filled successively every important lay position 
in that religious body. Of all the inhabitants 
of Bridgeton in 1810, when he went there, 
there are but seven ]3ersons now living who 
were residents of the town then, and at that 



10 



HISTOUV OF CllESTKIJ. 



liiiu-, llic now most importanl city of South 
Jersey, was a villaj^c containing a pojjulation 
of one hundred souls. Among the public 
buildings were five taverns, two churches, and 
but one three storied building. Almost all 
the houses of that day were one story and a 
half frame structures, while washed, and the 
window casing red washed. At that time 
a lot was offered to him for one thousand 
dollars, which to day could not be purchased 
for one hundretl thousand dollars." 

Davis Bevan Stacy while travelling 
in Holland, njade the acquaintance of 
Miss Sarah Van Dycke, daughter of 
Constantine Van Dycke and Jeannette 
Rynd, and they were married in 1825. 
Miss Van Dycke's father was the son 
of Susannah De Clyver and Jacobus 
Van Dycke, a lawyer of Flushing. He 
was born in Flushing, in 1767, and 
was married to Jeannette Rynd in 1 799. 
Constantine Van Dycke belonged to 
the celebrated Dutch East India Com- 
pany, and made several voyages to 
China as captain and supercargo, and 
shared in the prosperity of that great 
company, but in the war with England 
and France, the trade of Holland was 
completely ruined, and the ships of the 
East India Comi)any driven from the 
seas. While returning from the East 
Indies with a shi[) richly laden, he was 
captured by the British cruisers, his 
ship seized, and he himself thrown into 
prison in England. The French treat- 
ed him no better, for they also captured 
one of his ships. They also made large 
levies on many of the Dutch towns and 
cities, for .sums of money, &c. Flush- 
ing was treated in the same manner, 
and to ensure payment they seized 
several of the most influential citizens, 
and carried them to France as hostages. 
Constantine Van Dycke was one of 
these so selected, and was confined in 
the interior of France for some time. 
When Flushing was bombarded bv the 



English, he sent his wife and children 
out of the town, but remained himself, 
and at one time when a shell had fal- 
len near his house, he and one of his 
servants picked it up and threw it into 
the qtiay before it exploded. He died 
in Dec, 181 2. 

D. B. Stacey brought his wife to 
this country, and they resided in Phila- 
delphia from 1826 until 1842, when 
they removed to Pennsgrove, near 
Rockdale, or Lenni Station, on the 
West Chester, Media and Philadelphia 
Railroad. In 1848 Mr. Stacey re- 
moved to Chester with his family, and 
continued to reside in the house built 
by his great grandfather until his death, 
Feb. 7, 1864. His widow died Aug. 
30, 1873. Resulting from the mar- 
riage with Miss Van Dycke, were five 
sons and. five daughters, named as fol- 
lows: Jeannette Van Dycke, Davis 
Bevan, James George, George, Matthew 
Bevan, May Humphreys, Augusta Law- 
ler, Constance Isenberg, Natalie Remy, 
and Elizabeth. Of the sons, James 
George, George, and Matthew Bevan 
Stacey are deceased. George died in 
Philadelphia in 1838 ; Matthew Bevan 
died June 13, 1861, aged 26 yrs., and 
James died May, 1866. In 1856 
Jeannette married Prof. Elie Charlier of 
New York. In 1858 Davis emigrated 
to California, where he now resides. 
At the breaking out of the Rebellion 
in i86i, James joined the 12th regi- 
ment of Penn.sylvania Volunteers, as 
ist Lieutenant of Captain Henry B. 
Edwards' company, and served with 
c:redit until mustered out at the expi- 
ration of his term of service. He was 
present at the battle of Falling Waters 
in Virginia, and, indeed, took part in 
all the movements of General Patter- 
son's army. During the remainder of 
the war he was associated witli some 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



47 



gentlemen who were furnishing sup- 
plies to the army. At the time of his 
death he was 35 ; and a man univer- 
sally beloved wherever known. For 
a long time he was an active fireman 
in Philadelphia, and secretary of the 
America Hose Company. 

May was appointed a ist Lieutenant 
in the 12th regiment of United States 
Infantry, on the 14th of May, 1864. 
Previous to this he crossed the plains 
to California with Lieut. Edward F. 
Beale, (in 1857,) who was surveying a 
wagon road between Alberquerque, 
New Mexico, and the Colorado River. 
The first and only camels that ever 
crossed the American continent, as far 
as heard from, were taken by Lieuten- 
ant Scale's party. Remaining over a 
year in California, May returned home 
in a merchant ship via Calcutta and 
the Cape of Good Hope. In 1859 he 
received the appointment of Master's 
Mate on board the United States 
steamer Crusader, Captain J. N. Maf- 
fitt, (he who afterwards commanded 
the rebel cruiser Florida, which inflict- 
ed such damage upon our mercantile 
marine,) and served as Acting Lieut- 
enant during the cruise on the north 
side of the island of Cuba, to break up 
the slave trade. Two prizes were cap- 
tured, in one of which he returned 
home, and soon afterwards joined the 
United States Coast Survey steamer 
' ' Corwin. ' ' He remained in her until 
his appointment to the army. Lieut. 
Stacey was brevetted captain for gallant 
services at the battle of Welden Rail- 
road, in 1864, and soon afterwards 
promoted to captain. He also re- 
ceived the brevets of major and lieuc. 
colonel for gallant services during the 
war. He is still in the army. 

Colonel Stacey married Miss May 
H. Banks, dau. of Hon. Thaddeus and 



Delia Banks of Hollidaysburg, Penn- 
sylvania, Dec. 9, 1869. Miss Banks 
on her mother's side is a lineal des- 
cendant from Oliver Cromwell. They 
have issue Aubrey Banks, and Delia 
Van Dycke Stacey. Augusta Lawler 
Stacey m. Dr. Edward Curtis, of New 
York, in 1864. He is a brother of 
George W. Curtis, the author, and was 
at that time an assistant surgeon in the 
army, but has since resigned and is a 
professor in one of the New York Medi- 
cal Colleges. Constance w. Caleb 
Churchman Eyre, son of William Eyre, 
of Chester, Jan. 28, 1873. 11"^ the old 
Quaker burying ground at Chester 
laying side by side, are the Bevans 
and Staceys for nearly two hundred 
years back ; and living and dead, they 
can claim that town as their resting 
place, nearly if not quite as far back as 
any other family now resident there. 

VII. 

The live stock in the early days of 
the Province were permitted to run at 
large, and as they increased in num- 
bers, it became necessary that the own- 
ers should have their particular marks 
and brands placed upon them, so as to 
be able to recognize their own animals. 
The marks and brands were required 
to be entered on the records of the 
Court ; and such entries frequently oc- 
cur. The following are given as speci- 
mens : 

"James Sanderlaine's ear mark: 
both ears cropt and slitt; his brand 
mark, I.S." 

"John Harding's ear mark : a crope 
on the inside of the farr eare ; his brand 
mark, I.H. on the farr buttocks." 

"Samuel Levis — his ear mark: a 
swallow fork taken out of the near ear ; 
his brand mark, S.L." 



:\ 



48 



HISTORY OF C'lIESTEli. 



•'Francis Chads' car mark: a croj)e 
on the inside of the near ear ; his brand 
mark on the left heipe, F.C." 

"John Symcock's mark: a slitt in 
the right ear; his brand mark, S." 

"The ear mark of John Bhmston, 
of Darby : a crop in the near ear, and 
a hole in the far ear; his lirand mark, 
I. B." 

The Historical Society of Pennsyl- 
vania has had lately presented to its 
Library, a book containing the draw- 
ings of the ear marks of the cattle 
owners of Bucks County, in the old 
times, taken from the County Records, 
and presented to the Society for pre- 
servation. It is a great curiosity, be- 
ing the only book of the kind I ever 
saw. 

Constables and Supervisors were ap- 
pointed by the Court. It appears that 
at the expiration of their term of office, 
it was the practice for them to come 
into Court and report that " All was 
icu'll.'" The following are copies of 
the minutes of some such reports: 

" Nicholas Newlin, Constable for the 
last year from Concord, made his re- 
turn, 'All was well,' whereupon 
George Stroad was elected to serve in 
his stead. James Browne, Constable 
for the last year from Chichester, made 
his return by Thomas Usher, ' All was 
well ;' whereupon Francis Chads was 
elected to serve in his room the ensu- 
ing year. Robert Taylor, Supervi- 
sor for the Highways, from Chester 
Creek to Crome (Crum) Creek, made 
his return, ' AlHaell ;' whereupon Bar- 
tholomew Copi)ock was nominated and 
appointed Supervisor in his roome for 
the ensuing year." 

At a Court held the 2nd day of the 
first week of the 10 mo., 1686, a crimi- 
nal ca.se — Charles Pickering, pleads as 
.Attorney for the King. This is the 



first notice in the Court's records of 
an Attorney appearing on behalf of the 
Crown. David Lloyd was made At- 
torney General of the Province, April 
24, 1686. No doubt Charles Pickering 
held his appointment under him as 
Deputy. In the case referred to, "the 
Petty Jury returne their verdickt and 
find the prisoner not guilty of the in- 
dicktment, l>tct guilty of suspicious cir- 
cumstances in relation to the indicki- 
nient. 

In 1686, the Grand Jury presented 
Richard Crosby, " for keeping an un- 
lawful fence to the great damage of 
John Marten, in his swine." At the 
next Court, Richard appeared to an- 
swer the presentment, and was fined 
30 shillings. The Court the same year 
appointed two ' Fence Viewers' for 
each- precinct. This is the earliest 
notice on the records of the appoint- 
ment of these officers. 

The Court was very strict in enforc- 
ing the laws on the subject of Mar- 
riage, and in punishing those who fail- 
ed to comply with its provisions on 
that subject. Witness the troubles of 
the Rev. Dr. Laurentius Carolus, al- 
ready set forth. Then as now, much 
time was taken up with tippling cases, 
slander suits, and suits for assault and 
battery. The Grand Juries at first were 
drawn for the year, but the practice 
.soon changed to the present one, of 
having a Grand Jury drawn for each 
term of the Court. 

I am indebted to J. Smith Futhey, 
Esquire, of the Chester County Bar, for 
the above, and many other e.\tracts, 
made from the Court records, he hav- 
ing very kindly placed at my di.sposal 
the fruits of his researches. In refer- 
ence to them he says: 

" Tlie records of llie Court from the first d.nv 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



49 



it ^\•as held at Chester under William Penn, 
on the 13th day of September, 1681, to the 
present time, for the county of Chester, have 
been carefully preserved, and are all in the 
public offices at West Chester. Those ex- 
tending from 1681 to 1710, and which were 
comprised in two volumes, having become 
much worn and difficult to decipher, were by 
an order of the Court, made on the 13th of 
June, 1827, copied into one large book labelled 
' Old Court Records,' which is now in the 
office of the Clerk of the Court of Quarter 
Sessions. The records of the first Court com- 
mences thus : ' The Province of Pennsylvania, 
at a Court held at Upl.a.nd, Sept. 13, 1681,' 
and at a Court held 'on the 14th day of Feb- 
ruary, 1682,' or as we would now term it 1683, 
the old style by which the year ended in March 
then being in use, is recorded as being held at 
Chester, in the county of Chester. William 
Penn had in the meantime arrived in the Pro- 
vince, and from a mere whim, and to gratify 
the caprice or vanity of his friend Pearson, 
had changed the name from Ujjland to Ches- 



The next Court was held at Chester, 
on the 27th of 4th mo. (June , 1683, 
William Penn, Esq., Proprietary and 
Governor, Presiding. This is the only 
Court held at Chester, at which he 
appears to have been present and pre- 
sided. A law had been enacted by 
the first Assembly of the Province, 
"that y*^ days of y'' week, and y'' 
months of y'^ year, shall be called as 
in Scripture, and not by Heathen 
names (as are vulgarly used), as y^ 
first, second and third days of y" week, 
and the first, second and third months 
of y" year, beginning with y" day called 
Sunday, and y° month called March.' 
This style was accordingly adopted in 
recording the proceedings of this Court, 
and continued for a considerable time. 

At the next Court a Grand Jury, 
composed of seventeen persons, was 
empanelled " to look out a convenient 
highway leading from Providence to 
Chester," and thev were ordered to 



meet on a particular day at Thomas 
Nossiters, "thereto consider the pre- 
mises." 

At a Court held on the 17th of the 
8th mo. (Oct.), 1683, the name of 
Robert Eyre, appears as Clerk. He 
was the ancestor of the well-known 
family of Eyre, whose numerous de- 
scendants live in Chester, Philadel- 
phia, and elsewhere throughout our 
State and New Jersey. One of his 
descendants, Charles Eyre, Esq., a 
young member of the Philadelphia 
Bar, who studied law with the emi- 
nent lawyer, St. George Tucker Camp- 
bell, Esq., also of the Philadelphia 
Bar, shared my office for a number of 
years. He is a son of Joseph K. Eyre, 
of Montgomery County, a descendant 
of a New Jersey branch of the family. 

Robert Eyre was born in England, 
Jan. 30r 1648, O. S. He served his 
apprenticeship with William Rogers, 
a merchant of Bristow, a town of some 
note in that day, on the borders of 
Somerset and Gloucestershire, in Eng- 
land. Here he acquired that ready use 
of the pen that fitted him for the duties 
he was subsequently called upon to 
discharge. After the expiration of 
his apprenticeship, he for some time 
followed the sea as a supercargo, 
but eventually migrated to Pennsyl- 
vania, where he married Ann, the 
daughter of Francis Smith, a gentle- 
man of education and wealth, whose 
residence was Devizes, in the county 
of Wilts, and who was one of the 
original purchasers of land in England. 
On the authority of family tradition, 
it is said Robert Eyre first settled in 
New Jersey, but as part of the land, (300 
acres,) purchased by Francis Smith, was 
in Bethel township, Delaware Co., and 
was conveyed at an early date (i 704 1 to 
Robert Evre and his wife, this doubt- 



50 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



less causal liiin to change his ])lace of 
residence. Having been appointed 
Clerk of the Courts of Chester County 
in 1683, he held that office until 1690. 
His children were, Robert, Ann, Jane, 
William and Francis. Robert Eyre, 
the elder, was not a Quaker, but some 
of his descendants imited themselves 
with that Society. The time of his 
death is not exactly known ; but he 
was alive in 1697. His son, William, 
intermarried with Mary, the daughter 
of Lewis David, of Haverford,in 1723- 
4, and occupied the patrimonial estate 
in Bethel. Francis Smith, father-in- 
law of Robert Eyre, settled in Ken- 
nett, and it is said, named the town- 
shij) after the place in- which he was 
born. See Biographical Sketches by 
Dr. Smith, p. 462, History of Dela- 
ware County. Ann, widow of Robert 
Eyre, died in 1726. 

The father of Jose])h K. Eyre, be- 
fore mentioned by myself, lived in 
the vicinity of Haddonfield, New 
Jei'sey. His son, lately a merchant 
in Philadelphia, retired some years 
ago from active business, in very com- 
fortable circumstances. One of his 
daughters, Bessie, married my friend, 
and student at law in my office, Rich- 
ard Harding Reilly, only child of Dr. 
Thomas A. Reilly, a well-known phy- 
sician of north Broad Street, Philadel- 
phia, and Henrietta Harding, his wife, 
one of the daughters of the late Rich- 
ard and Maria Harding. Richard H. 
and Bessie Reilly have issue — Henri- 
etta and Richard H. Reilly, Jr. The 
only other children of Joseph K. Eyre 
are, Emily, Edward Hoi)kins and Ella 
Eyre. 

I. Bernard Reilly, came from Ire- 
land to America, and first settled in 
New York in 1796, accomjjanied by 
his son. a bov, named 



2. John Reilly, who married a girl 
of his own name, Reilly, by whom he 
had two children. 

3. Paul, who died in California. 

3. Dr. Thomas A. Reilly, of Phila- 
delphia, now deceased, who married 
Henrietta, daughter of Richard and 
Maria Harding, of Philadelphia, they 
had issue, an only son, 

4. Richard H. Reilly, above named. 
The Montgomery family of Eyre, 

use as a book-plate the following 
blazon: '■'■Arms, Argent, on a Che- 
veron. Sable, three-quatre foils, or. 
Crest, a leg, couped at the thigh, bent 
at the knee, in armour, proper ; Spur, 
or. Motto, Se je puis." (If I can). 
These arms, with a different motto and 
crest, are those now borne by the 
Baron Eyre, of Ireland, patented 3rd 
July, 1768. See Edtnundson's Dis- 
play of Heraldry. 

In the Pennsylvania Packet, of March 
30, 1772, is a notice, "To the Public, 
dated at Marcus Hook, the 24th of 
March, 1772, of Allen Meiiros, de- 
fending himself against his ' calumniat- 
ing adversary, Robert Eyre,' appended 
to which, is a certificate of good char- 
acter ; signed, Robert Crau;, 

Missionary at Chester, and 



Richard Reilly, J. P., 
Joshua Coupland, J. '. 
John Smith, Grazier, 
John Crawford, 
Samuel Armor, 
Archibald Dick, 
John Jord, 



John Power, 
Joseph (Jribblc, 
Kichard Clayton 
John Flower, 
John Taylor, 
Andrew Forsyth. 



The English family of Air, A)res, 
or Eyre, was founded A. D., 1060. 
The first known member thereof was 
called Trulovc. At the battle of Hast- 
ings, JVilliam was flung from his horse, 
and his helmet crushed into his face, 
which Trulove seeing pulled it off, and 
assisted his commander to re-mount. 
The Duke said to him : " Thou shalt 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



51 



hereafter from Trulove be called Eyre 
(Air) because thou hast given me the 
Air I breathe. ' ' After the victory the 
Duke on inquiring for Trulove, learn- 
ed that he was severely wounded, his 
leg having been cut off at the thigh. 
He saw the wounded soldier, and 
ordered that he should receive the 
utmost care. On his recovery the 
conqueror gave him lands in Derby 
for his services ; and for his O'est, a 
leg cut off at the thigh. See Thorpe' s 
Catalogue of Deeds of Battle Abbey. 

In the 22nd year of the reign of 
Henry II. (11 72), the office of Jus- 
tices in Eyre, in itinere, was instituted 
by the king ; this is the more proba- 
ble origin of the name of Eyre. See 
Blackstojie'' s Commentaries, vol. iii. pp. 
58, 72, 73, and vol. iv. 422, 423. 

William Eyre, son of Robert and 
Ann of Bethel, was married 1723-4 at 
Haverford Meeting, to Mary Davis of 
Darby, dau. of Lewis David, and con- 
tinued to reside in Bethel until his 
death, in 1763 or '4. His widow sur- 
vived him several years, and was an 
overseer of Chichester Meeting from 
1756 to 1774. 

Their children, so far as known, were 
Lewis, William, Robert, John, Isaac, 
Rebecca, Jane and Ann. Lewis died 
in 1 771, unmarried. William, also 
unmarried, died 11 mo. 18, 181 4, aged 
about 88. Robert married about 1765 
and removed to Virginia in or before 
1774, but probably returned before his 
death. Rebecca married 2 mo. 27, 
1749, Joseph Askew, and died a few 
years after, leaving three sons, John, 
William and Parker. Jane married, 
in 1756, Robert Wilson, Jr. Ann 
Eyre died, unmarried, 12 mo. 3, 1812, 
aged 73 years. 

John and Isaac Eyre settled in Ches- 
ter, and the first was married 12 mo. 



1 3' 1759? at Chester Meeting, to Re- 
becca, dau. of Daniel and Sarah Sharp- 
ies, of Nether Providence, by whom 
he had issue — William, b. 2 mo. 22, 
1763 ; d. about 1782 : Caleb, b. 9 mo. 
7, 1767; d. iinm. 6 mo. 11, 1805: 
Sarah., b. 4 mo. 19, 1772 ; m. 5 mo. 
30, 1799, George Palmer of Concord, 
and d. 8 mo. 10, 1861, without issue: 
Rebecca, b. \\ mo. 13, 1778; d. unm. 
9 mo, 30, 1826 : Beulah, a twin sister, 
;//. II mo. 20, 1806, Townsend Thomas 
of Willistown, afterward of Chiches- 
ter. They had children — Rebecca, 
Mary, Beulah Elma, Townsend, Sarah 
and Caleb Eyre Thomas. 

John Eyre's wife, Rebecca, died 2 
mo. 3, 1796, and he married (2nd) 
Isabella Campbell, 4 mo. 29, 1799, by 
wliom he had a dau. , Mary Ann, b. i 
mo. 29, 1800. He removed from 
Chester in 1776 to Upper Chichester, 
probably settling on some property in- 
herited from his brother Lewis, and 
there died 6 mo. 4, 181 2, having been 
a prominent member of Chichester 
Meeting, of which he was appointed 
an Elder in 1 776. His widow married 
Robert Innis, and both were suffocated 
in 1841, by the fumes of a coal fire in 
their bed room. 

Isaac, son of William and Mary 
Eyre, m. 6 mo. 26, 1766, at Chester 
Meeting, Ann, dau. of Jonas and Jane 
Preston. They had issue — Jonas, b. 
4 mo. 28, 1767; d. 3 mo. 21, 1836: 
Lewis, /^. 3 mo. 23, 1769: William, 
b. 3 mo, 22, 1 771 : Preston, b. 2 mo. 
17, 1774; ;//. 9 mo. 8, 1803, Arabella 
Ashmead : Mary, b. 3 mo. 9, 1776; 
m. Edward Engle, 1796: Isaac, b. 4 
mo. 19, 1778. 

Isaac, the father, took an active part 
in some measures for securing the in- 
dependence of our country, and in 
consequence thereof, lost his member- 



52 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



ship anioPL^ l-Vicnds in 1775; luit in 
17.S3. lie made an a(kno\vlc(l<,niicnt to 
the Meeting anti again became a mem- 
ber. By his second marriage, which 
was by a magistrate, to Abigail, dau. 
of Nathan Dicks, he again lost his 
right of membership, in 1786. His 
death occurred 10 mo. 23, 1825, at the 
age of 85. 

Jonas Eyre, his son, was first married 
about 1 79 1, but his wife died a few 
years after, leaving two children, Jesse 
Beckerton and Jonas Preston Eyre. 
He ;//. (2nd) II mo. 11, 1801, Susanna, 
dau. of Joshua and Mary Pusey, of 
Londongrove, Chester Co., by whom 
he had issue — Lewis, b. 5 mo. 19, 
1805 ; d. 7 mo. 5, 1806: Joshua Pu- 
sey, b. 7 mo. 14, 1803: William, b. 
7 mo. 14, 1803. 

Jonas Preston Eyre, ///. 2 mo. 12, 
1 81 8, at New Garden Meeting, Re- 
becca, dau. of David and Margaret 
Wilson, of Londongrove, and settled 
in Bethel. Their children were — Jo- 
nas, /;. 4 mo. 19, 1819: Margaret W., 
b. II mo. 4, 1820: Susanna, b. 12 
mo. 16, 1822 : Elizabeth, /;. 12 mo. 
21, 1824; d. 12 mo. 23, 1824: Anne 
Yj.,b. I mo. 18, 1826: Joshua, b. 4 mo. 
16, 1828: David W., b. 12 mo. 2, 
1832. Rebecca, their mother, died 
in Aston, 4 mo. 13, 1854, at the age 
of 64. 

Joshua P. Eyre, an old and influ- 
ential citizen of Chester, d. April i, 
1872, in the 69th year of his age. 
In early life he and his brother Wil- 
liam, began business as general grocers, 
which in a country town, means trad- 
ing in all kinds of farm products, and 
articles of family consumption and 
use. Their old sloop, ''Jonas Pres- 
ton,'" made weekly trips to Philadel- 
phia, carrying the j^roducts to a mar- 
ket, and bringing back everything 



necessary for their trade. Prosj)erous 
in their business, and universally es- 
teemed, they retired early in life from 
active business pursuits, yet occupying 
many high positions of trust in the 
community in which they lived. Both 
were directors of the Delaware Mutual 
Safety, the old Delaware County In- 
surance Company, a Chester institu- 
tion originally, now of Philadelphia, 
for over a quarter of a century. Joshua 
was one of the incorporators of the com- 
pany, in 1835, and a director thereof 
from the first election, and both bro- 
thers took great interest in its affairs. 
Excellent likenesses of both the bro- 
thers, by the celebrated Philadelphia 
portrait painter, Wai/gh, adorn the di- 
rector's room of the company, a tribute 
of respect, and in remembrance of their 
long and faithful services. Joshua was 
one of the directors of the Bank of 
Delaware County, at the time of his 
death. The close friendship, and life- 
long companionship of these two bro- 
thers, is very pleasing to recall. It 
casts a mellow radiance over their 
deaths, and fills our hearts with sen- 
sations of genuine regret for the loss 
of such men. William Eyre, Jr., 
married twice, having a' son by his first 
wife called after his brother ; he now 
occupies the old family residence on 
Concord Road. He married again and 
had a daughter and two sons, Caleb and 
William. His first wife was Anna 
Louisa, dau: of Dr. Job H. Terrill, 
of Chester, ///. March 4, 1837. His 
second wife was Rebecca P., dau: 
of Caleb Churchman, ni. Nov. 26, 
1843. Through all these changing 
events of life, Joshua remained un- 
married, and continued to live with 
his brother, and after his death, in 
1863, continued to live with his chil- 
dren, their guardian and their friend, 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



53 



and at his death left his large estate 
equally divided between them. I will 
be pardoned this just tribute, I know, 
for these gentlemen were from boy- 
hood, my father's friends. 

Joshua P, and William Eyre, for 
many years after their retirement from 
business, occupied the handsome resi- 
dence erected by the late Archibald T. 
Dick, Esq. Both brothers were tall, 
slender men, like most of their name 
and generation ; kind, gentle, and 
courteous in their manners ; and in 
their friendships, " true as steel." 
Joshua was particularly fond of a good 
joke, and his hearty, genial laugh, 
can easily be recalled by any who 
knew him. He died the possessor of 
the original tract of land on which 
his ancestor first settled in this Pro- 
vince. Of this he was justly proud, 
so many of our families having dis- 
appeared from amongst us, and so 
many others no longer owning their 
ancestral acres. The Eyre family of 
Delaware County, contains a large 
number of members of both sexes. 

There was living with Joshua P. 
Eyre, at the time of his decease, and 
I believe she had lived with him all 
his life, an honored old aunt — Lydia 
Pusey — who nursed him in his last ill- 
ness, which extended through several 
years, and at last, her life-long friend 
and relative having "gone home," 
she went soon after to her rest, on the 
19th of April, 1872, in the 93d year 
of her good old age. 

A few days previous to the death of 
Miss Pusey, an estimable old lady of 
Chester passed away, who was born in 
1783, Mary Ann Taylor, a daughter of 
Nathan Supplee. She married John 
Taylor, of Aston, about 50 years be- 
fore her death. He, after his mar- 
riage, became well-known as the War- 



den of St. Martin's Church, at Marcus 
Hook, — a position he held for many 
years. 

Miss Mary Eyre, a daughter of the 
late Manuel Eyre, of Kensington, who 
owned the ground on which the tree 
stood, under whose branches it is said 
William Penn made his great Treaty 
of Amity with the Indians, married Col. 
Lewis Downing, late principal chief of 
the Cherokee nation. He was the 
Lieut. Col. of a regiment of native 
Indian volunteers during our late Re- 
bellion, and a frequent visitor at Beth- 
lehem. They are both dead now, and 
had no issue. Col. D. has left chil- 
dren, however, by a former marriage. 

The roots of the old " Penn Treaty 
Tree," were dug up by Miss Eyre, 
and taken with her, when she made 
Bethlehem her residence, and where 
she lived in a quaint old house, the 
"First Moravian Store," formerly, 
now torn down. The old roots stood 
in her parlor, and were used as a 
" What-not,'''' and their curious ap- 
pearance attracted the attention of all 
her visitors. They were deposited by 
her executrix and niece. Miss Rosalie 
Tiers, in the Museum of the "Young 
Men's Moravian Missionary Society," 
at Bethlehem, Pa. 

Miss Tiers says: — 

" The ground on which the Treaty Ehn of 
Penn stood, lielonged to Mr. Matthew Van 
Dusen, at the time the tree was blown down, 
March i, 1810. My imcle, Mr. FrankHn Eyre, 
owned the property immediately adjoining, and 
to him Mr. Van Dusen made the proposition, 
that if he would have the entire trunk sawed 
into planks, he might have half the wood. This 
Mr. Eyre gladly acceded to, and afterwai'ds he 
received permission to possess himself of the 
root. A very curious piece of Indian pottery 
was found, and the large space in the centre of 
the roots now shows where it was imbedded. 
Much to the disappointment of many, this jar 
crumbled to dust on exposure to the air. The 



54 



HISTORY OF CHESTEK. 



root was never (Iivi<lc(l, lh(>u_<:;h of necessity 
much of it was lojiped off from the main part. 
The cobhit stone which was entanj^lcd among 
the roots when they were growintj still remains 
near its outer edge, and could not l)e easily re- 
movetl." 

'riu' roots mentioned, liave since been 
presented to the Historical Society of 
Pennsylvania. 

It is proper to state, however, in 
this connection, that no such Treaty 
as that represented in West's Pawting 
ever took place; but a '■^ Big Talk'" 
was held, a mere verbal treaty of Am- 
ity ; no purchase of land whatever. 
And several of the persons represented 
in West' s picture, did not visit this 
country until several years later, and 
some were never here at all ; among 
the latter, the artist's grandfather. 
William Penn never bought any lands 
of the Indians, except a small tract, 
in 1682, in Bucks County, known as 
'■'■ Penn^s Manor,''' in extent 10 by 12 
miles. The deed for which can be 
seen in our Historical Society. 

The punishments inflicted by the 
Courts, during the earlier days of the 
Province, seem to have been, in crimi- 
nal cases, confinement in the stocks, 
and whipping at the pillory, or at the 
tail of a cart. Exposure in the pillory 
bearing a placard, inscribed with the 
offence of the criminal, and fines. If 
the defendant could not pay the latter, 
and costs of prosecution, he was sold 
out to service for a period of years. In 
1690, the following is a sentence in one 
case, which will serve as an example : 
— " Whipping with thirty-nine lashes, 
well laid on his back at the cart's 
tail, and to be sold eight years for his 
fine and costs, and to repay the losses 
occasioned by a former larceny." 
'I'his ptmishment was inflicted on a 
servant -man of Chichester, for steal- 



ing 14 dressed deer-skins. The fines 
sometimes were very heavy ; in one 
case, "One half of the defendant's 
estate." (Whether that was heavy, 
depends upon the extent of his estate.) 
Sometimes the convict was banished 
from the Province, and in rare cases 
imprisonment was resorted to. The 
want of proper and secure jails had as 
much to do with these various modes 
of punishing criminals as anything 
else. 

Jonathan Hayes, Randall Vernon, 
and Robert Piles, did refuse the office 
of Justice of the Peace in Chester. 
I Col. Record, 375, May 13, 1693. 

A Jury of Women was called at 
Chester, on the 27th of 6 mo., 1689. 
A case of Crini. Con. came before the 
Court ; the parties having confessed 
themselves guilty of the charge, were 
presented by the Crand Inciuest ; 
" Upon which they were both called 
to the bar, where they made their ap- 
pearance, and upon her further con- 
fession and submission, a Jury of Wo- 
men, whose names are underwritten, 
ordered to inspect." The names of 
the Jury impannelled were, Lydia 
Wade, Sarah Usher, Hester Rawlence, 
Mary Carter, Jane Hawkes, Mary Hos- 
kins, Elizabeth' Musgrove, Mary Bay- 
less, Elizabeth Hastings, Mary Little, 
Jane Moulder and Anne Saunderlaine. 
"They make return they cannot fine 
she is (as charged), neither be they 
sure she is not. ' ' The case is rendered 
at full on the records of the Chester 
County Court. 

John Hoskins and Mary, his wife, 
(one of the above jury,) came from 
Cheshire, England, and settled at 
Chester. He was a Friend, and pur- 
chased a lot at Chester, in 1688, upon 
which he built a house, and kei)t it as 
an Inn. This old tavern was on lulge- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



55 



mont Avenue, between Front and Se- 
cond Streets. He was one of the origi- 
nal purchasers under Penn, and is set 
down in the list for 250 acres, which 
were laid out 4 mo. 27, I864, in Mid- 
dletown, between lands of Richard 
Crosby and David Ogden, by virtue of 
a warrant dated 9 mo. 21, 1683. He 
was a man of education, as evinced by 
his having been elected to the Provin- 
cial Assembly of which he sat as a mem- 
ber on March 12, 1683. 

His will, dated 11 mo. 2, 1694-5, 
and proven Aug. 15, 1698, is register- 
ed in Philadelphia, in which he is 
styled " of the county of Chester, 
tailor," and the name written Hodgs- 
kinson. In the early records, the name 
is frequently written Hodgkins, at least 
by others. He left but two children, 
John and Hannah, of whom the former 
was married in 1698 to Ruth Atkin- 
son, and the latter in the same year to 
Charles Whitaker; while their mother 
married, in 1700, George Woodier, a 
widower, of Upper Providence, after- 
ward of Chester. She was an active 
member of Friends' Meeting at Ches- 
ter, of which she and Ann Pusey were 
appointed overseers in 1696 ; but at a 
meeting held 8 mo. 28, 1700, it is 
stated — "because Mary Hoskins Re- 
fuses, Being Anchent, to stand over- 
seer with Ann Pusey for Chester meet- 
ing, soe this meeting makes Choyes of 
Eliz : Job to stand in her place." 

John Hoskins, Jr., must have been 
a person of considerable ability, as he 
was elected Sheriff in 1700, when not 
more than twenty-three years of age, 
and continued to hold the office until 
1 715, except during the 'year 1708. 
His death occurred 8 mo. 26, 1716, 
and that of his widow, Ruth, in 1739. 

Their children were — John, b. 12 
mo. 24, 1699 ; Stephen, //. 12 mo. 18, 



1 701-2; George, b. 8 mo. 8, 1703, 
died young ; Joseph, b. 4 mo. 30, 
1705; Mary, b. 8 mo. i, 1707. Ste- 
phen, a cooper by trade, married in 
1727, Sarah Warner, a widow, of Ma- 
ryland, and removed thither, but re- 
turned to Chester in 1730, and perhaps 
about 1743, settled in Philadelphia. 
His children were John, Ruth in. to 

Wilson, and Mary in. to 

Warner. Joseph Hoskins in. 8 mo. 
26, 1738, at Chester Meeting, Jane 
Fenn, a noted Quaker preacher, but 
left no children. In 1 731, he made a 
voyage to Barbadoes, but did not re- 
main long, and in 1739, went on bus- 
iness to Boston. He was styled a 
"cordwainer" in the old writings. 
In 1756, his wife paid a religious visit 
to New England, and on her journey 
received a hurt, causing lameness, by 
which she was detained at Boston 
several weeks. After her return, she 
appeared at meeting "and gave some 
short relation of her journey, and of 
the openness of the Presbyterians to 
hear the free Gospel of Christ preach- 
ed, and their particular respect and 
sympathy to her in particular in her 
affliction, which is matter of comfort 
and satisfaction to this meeting." 
After her death Joseph married, about 
the close of the year 1765, Esther 
Bickerdike, of Bucks County. In his 
will, proved July 21, 1773, he devised 
;^io, to be used in enclosing or fenc- 
ing the burying ground belonging to 
the Friends of Chester Meeting; also, 
the sum of ^30, toward schooling and 
educating such poor children of the 
borough or township as the Meeting 
should think worthy of such assistance. 
To his friends, Henry Hale Graham 
and William Swaffer, he devised a lot 
100 feet square, at the intersection of 
Welsh or Back Street and the King's 



56 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



Road, in trust for the use of the in- 
habitants of the borough and town- 
ship, "for the Building and Erecting 
(thereon) a School House or School 
Houses or other Edifices for the Teach- 
ing, Instructing and Educating of 
youth therein." His nephew, John 
Hoskins, of Burlington, was his resid- 
uary legatee, and executor. 

This John Hoskins was married 9 
mo. 22, 1750, to Mary dau. of Joshua 
and Sarah Raper, of Burlington. His 
son, Raper Hoskins, came to Chester 
to reside as early as 1775, and was 
married at Chester Meeting, 5 mo. 2, 
1 78 1, to Eleanor, dau. of Henry Hale 
Graham. Another son, Joseph, came 
from Burlington in 1784, and m. 6 
mo. 12, 1793, Mary Graham, n sister 
to Eleanor. 

Mary Hoskins, dau. of John and 
Ruth, m. about 1730, John Mather, 
who was a prominent citizen of Ches- 
ter and for some years a Justice of the 
Common Pleas. They had three chil- 
dren — Joseph, Ruth and Jane. To 
Ruth, her grandmother, Hoskins de- 
vised the house and lot where Awbrey 
Bevan now lives in Chester, and com- 
monly known by the name of Penn- 
sylvania Arms : will dated July 3, 
1739. This grand-daughter became 
the wife of Hon. Charles Thomson, 
while her sister, Jane, married Dr. 
Paul Jackson. 

Graham Hoskins, son of Raper and 
Eleanor, l>. Nov. 4, 1792, druggist, of 
Philadelphia, m. Margaret, daugh. of 
William Smith, Jr., and Margaret, and 
has living five grandchildren, James, 
William S., Graham, George W. and 
Margaret, children of his deceased son, 
William Smith Hoskins. 

\'ehicles were not used for travel- 
ling in the early days of the Province. 
The Swedes used boats, as did also 



the Dutch before them, the creeks 
and rivers were the natural highways 
to these people in their own countries, 
and both nature and necessity made 
them so in ours. The roads were gen- 
erally mere paths through the woods, 
which were free from undergrowth, 
from the habit the Indians had of fir- 
ing the woods every fall. 

On Nov. 12, 1678, the "Court at 
Upland ordered that every person 
should within the space of two months, 
as far as his land reaches, make good 
and passable wayes from neighbour to 
neighbour with bridges when it needs, 
to the end that neighbours on occasion 
may come together. Those neglect- 
ing to forfeit 25 guilders. ' ' The Court 
at New Castle a few months later or- 
dered, " the highways to be cleansed 
as followeth, viz. : The way bee made 
clear of standing and lying trees, at 
least len foot broad, all stumps an^ 
shrubbs to be close cutt by y® ground. 
The trees mark'd yearly on both sides, 
sufficient bridges to be made and kept 
over all marshy, swampy, and difficult 
dirty places, and whatever else shall be 
thought more necessary about y* high- 
ways afores'd." See New Castle Re- 
cord, Book B, p. 146. 

I call attention here to the peculi- 
arities of ancient spelling, &c. The' 
y in old manuscripts in the word y% 
is an alteration of the Saxon character 
called Thorn, having the sound of 
th, and not y* as is commonly given it. 
Y', is that ; y"", means them ; y"^, 
means thereof; two small uu's represent 
the capital W. U and V were used in- 
discriminately, being considered the 
same letter.* I, was used where the J 
now is. The capital F, was represent- 
ed by two small f 's [thus ff ] ; wlicrc 
y"*, mee, <S:c. , were used, it was in- 
tended that those words shoukl be em- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



57 



phasized, just as we use italics for that 
purpose now ; &= stands for etc., which 
is a contraction of et cetera, meaning 
and so forth, represented now in print 
and writing, &c., growing out of mak- 
ing the 6^ quickly in writing. 

The English settlers here travelled, 
of necessity, on horseback, both men 
and women. " The want of a bridle- 
road between the Broad road near 
James Browne's house in Chichester 
(Marcus Hook) and Chichester creek, 
and from thence to Chester cr.," was 
presented by the Grand Jury at March 
term of the county court in 1795. I'"^ 
going to meeting on First-day, the 
women generally rode on a pillion, 
behind their husbands or some rela- 
tive, and thus couples often came into 
Chester in the old times. It was im- 
possible then to travel in any other 
way, the numerous streams, then much 
wider than now, were without bridges. 
The roads crossed the creeks where 
they were fordable ; and the " King's 
Road," from Philadelphia leading 
South, crossed all the creeks above tide 
water, and did not as the ''Queen's 
Road ' ' does now, pass through Ches- 
ter, but some distance to the north of 
that place; it crossed Ridley Creek 
above Richard Crosby's mill dam. 
This old mill property remained in the 
Crosby family, until after the death 
of my grand-uncle, the late Peirce 
Crosby, who died there July 26, 1853, 
in his 82d year, when it became ne- 
cessary to dispose of it, for the purpose 
of dividing his estate among his heirs. 
There is only one male member of the 
family now living who bears the old 
name, viz. : Commodore Peirce Crosby, 
of the United States Navy. It has 
been used, however, as a given name 
in the family very often, as in case of 
my cousins, Crosby Peirce Morton, 



and Crosby Peirce Wright. Peirce 
has also become a familiar christian 
name in all branches of the family, and 
is also used as a middle name. 

The first mention made of Crosby's 
mill, is in 1713 — (Smith, p. 221) — 
when a road was laid out from Provi- 
dence lower road by Richard Crosby's 
mill to Edgmont road, near what is 
now called Shoemakerville, a small 
place called after a family of that 
name, whose old residence is on the 
hill west of Ridley Creek, a comfort- 
able and substantial old stone house. 
The built up portion of Chester now 
reaches Shoemakerville. 

It was not till 1686, that the Court 
ordered the erection of a horse bridge 
over the creek near Chester, and a 
similar one over Croome Creek on the 
King's road, and in 1687, over Ridley 
Creek, on the same road. At this 
latter time neither of the two former 
bridges had been erected as ordered ; 
but in 1688, the one over Crum Creek 
had been built and was already in need 
of repairs, so that it must have been 
a very mean structure. The King's 
road was sometimes called the "Great 
Southern Road." 

At December Court, 1699, a petition 
was presented by Ralph Fishbourne, 
" for a convenient road from the West 
side of Chester creek, where the Ferry 
is to be kept, for to lead to the now 
King's road.'" The Court appointed 
six viewers for to go and lay out the 
said roadway in the most convenient 
place they can, for the conveniency of 
the inhabitants. 

The six viewers appointed were, Al- 
bert Hendrixson, John Childe, James 
Lownes, James Hendrixson, John Hos- 
kins, and Henry Worley. 

In the year 1700, it was thought 
necessary for the better accommoda- 



58 



IIISTOHV OF CIIKSTEK. 



tion of the lu)r()iiL;li of" ClH'stcr, ami 
the inhal)itnnts of the lower part of 
the county of Chester, as well as tra- 
vellers, that the King's high-road 
should be altered and brought nearer 
to the river, and to pass through the 
borough of Chester with a draw-bridge 
over the creek there ; accordingly an 
Act was obtained the same year, au- 
thorizing the erection of a bridge over 
the creek at Chester, and ordering the 
Justices of the County Court, " to lay 
out a road from the King's Road that 
leads to New Castle and Maryland, to 
the intended place for a bridge over 
Chester Creek." The act required 
that the bridge should have a draw to 
it, and that a person should be cm- 
ployed to attend the same, and draw 
it uj) when necessary to let sloops and 
shalloi)s pass to and from the mills 
situated on the creek, and that the 
space of twenty feet should be left 
clear between the timbers or stone- 
work for the conveniency of rafts and 
logs passing to said mills. The act of 
14th of Aug., 1725, to prevent obstruc- 
tions to the navigation of Chester 
Creek, says in the preamble, that the 
draw-bridge was erected, " but is now 
gone to decay, and requires to be re- 
built or repaired," and directs the 
Commissioners of the county to re- 
build or repair the bridge, within the 
period of twelve months. The act of 
Sept. 3, 1 778, ^3.y?,a. draw-bridge, which 
was first built in 1700 over Chester 
Creek, and rebuilt in 1725, is at last 
decayed and ruined, and it is neces- 
sary for the convenience of travellers 
on the high-road, that a good, safe 
bridge over said creek should be always 
maintained and kept in repair, but the 
dra7L> or engine to raise and lower the 
same is of no public utility, and yet 
attendi-d with extraordinary ex]K'nses 



and inconveniences to the public. 
Therefore, Be it e?meted, d-v., that the 
Commissioners and Assessors, with the 
concurrence of the Magistrates of the 
County of Chester, shall, as soon as 
may be, cause a new bridge to be built 
at the place where the old bridge for- 
merly stood, leaving at least twenty 
feet clear between the timber or stone 
work, and not less than eighteen feet in 
breadth, and eight feet headway at 
high water, for the easy passage for 
rafts, flats, shallops, and othe» crafts ; 
and the said bridge shall be made fast, 
and close continued from one side of 
the creek to the other, without any draw 
or opening for a mast," &c. I pre- 
sume the bridge erected in accordance 
with the above act, was the one that 
stood over the creek immediately pre- 
ceding the present one, or of which 
the present bridge is an alteration, 
made about the year 1868, with side- 
walks for i)edestrians. The former, or 
old bridge, was a wooden structure, 
supported by large, heavy chains ])ass- 
ing over iron columns resting on either 
abutment. I think each link of the 
chains must have been about two feet 
in length, all made of wrought iron. 
Connecting the two columns on either 
side of the bridge was a large planking 
cut out to represent an arch, present- 
ing a very neat appearance, and right 
over each arch was a sign painted 
white with the following notice in 
black letters: — " Walk your horse, and 
drive not more than fifteen head of cattle 
at one time over this bridge, under a 
penalty of no less than ^30." The 
author of the lines must have been a 
Mason. I have heard it was John K. 
Zeilin, Esq. 

Watson, in his Historical Collec- 
tions, MS., says: — "The road from 
Chester bridge to New Castle was call- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



59 



ed the King's Road. I have heard 
old j^ersons say, that there were mile 
stones having some signs of royalty en- 
graved on them along this road." As 
some of the old mile stones had Penn's 
arms cut on them, it accounts for these 
statements. 

At a meeting of the Provincial Coun- 
cil held at Philadelphia, y^ 19th March, 
1705-6. The following petition (co- 
pied from a copy, among the " Logan 
Papers," in possession of the Historical 
Society of Pa., and never before print- 
ed,) was presented and read, as will 
appear by the minutes. See 2d Colonial 
Records, 244, &c. 

To the HonUile John Evans, Esq., Lieut. 
Governor of the Provmce of Pennsilvania 
and the three Lower Counties and to his 
Council. 

The Humble petition of the Inhal)itants of 
tlie town and County of Chester and others, 
humbly showeth : That whereas by ye Laws 
of this Government y^ sole power of laying 
out of the Queen's Road is lodged in the 
Governor and Council — and whereas the Town 
of Chester is daily improving, and In time may 
become a great place and very advantageous 
to the Propriatour, but forasmuch as most of 
the People of that place concerned In the Im- 
provement is much discouraged for want of a 
direct Road from thence to Philadelphia, wee 
your Petitioners, whose names are hereunto 
subscribed, do beg the Governor and Councill 
— that an ord'r may be granted to fitt and pro- 
per persons to lay out the Queen's Road on as 
direct a Line as can be from Darby to answer 
the bridge on Chester Creek ; and your peti- 
tioners in duty bound will ever pray. 



Edward Dutton, 
Jonathan Rutdand, 
David I'owell, 
John Wiley, 
Isaac Taylour, 
Charles Booth, 
Joshua Calvert, 
Richard Prichard, 
John Houldston, 
Samuel Bishop, 
Jonathan Hayes, 
John Grubb, 
Henry Hollingsworth, 



James Hendricxson, 
Richard Crosby, 
Joseph Cloud, 
Edward Wilburn, 
Thomas Buffington, 
Richard Elwell, 
Jonathan Munrow, 
John Morton, 
David Jones, 
James Thomas, 
Joseph Baker, 
Daniel Lewis, 
William Gregory, 



George Simpson, Ephraim Jackson, 

Peter Trego, Edward Kennison, 

James Swaffer, Phillip Yarnall, 

Edward Jennings, John Gibbeans, 

Morgan Jones, Roger Jackson, 

James Chivers, Richard Addams, 

David Loyd, JohnChilde, 

Jasper Yeates, Ralph Fishburn, 

James Sandelandes, Wm. Pickells, 

John Hoskins, Wm. Hurtin, 

John Wade, David Roberts, 

Paul Sanders, Wm. Swaffer, 

Robert Barber, Thomas Cartwright, 

Sam'l Tomlinson, John Bauldine, 

David Merrideth, John Test, 

Edward Danger, Jnhn Test, Jr., 

John Hikenes, John Dutton, 

Thomas Oldham, Thomas Dutton, 

Thomas Bauldwin, Alexander Badcock, 

Joseph Richards, George Woodiar, 

Walter Martin, John Bristow, 

Tho. Powell, George Oldfield, 

Nicholas Faiilamb, John Sharpies, 

Moses Key, Tho. Vernon, 

Henry Coburn, Jeremiah Collet, Sr. 

Nathan Baker, Mordicai Howell, 

Geo. Chandler, Israel Taylor, 

John Worrall, Jeremiah Collet, Jr. 
Humphrey Johnston, 

By a memorandum in the Council 
Minute Book D, begun 19th March, 
1705-6, p. I, it appears that the "in- 
habitants of Chester petition for a 
road from Darby to Chester bridge, 
with an ord'r for its being laid out." 
See Logan Papers, vol. iv., marked 
"Roads," paper No. 59. Thereupon 
it was ordered by the Council — 

" That the said Road lie laid accordingly, 
and if there shall be occasion for building a 
bridge over any Navigable creek or water for 
the greater conveniency of Travelling the said 
Road, that such bridge shall be so built that 
the same may in no wise hinder any Boats 
from passiiTg up or down such creek or water. 
And it is further ordered yt Jasper Yeates, 
Caleb Pusey, Jeremiah CoUett, Robert Barber 
and John Hendrickson, or any four of them, 
do survey and lay out the said Road, and that 
they return as soon as they can to this Board, 
under their hands and seals, an exact draught 
setting forth the several courses thereof." 

A draft of this road is on file in the 
office of the Surveyor General, and 
also of that of the Secretary of State, 
at Harrisburg. And in accordance 



60 



11 IS TORY OF CHESTER. 



with the order of Council the Road 
was promptly laid out, and the Suj^ervi- 
sors of Chester, Ridley and Darby, were 
directed by the County Court and no- 
tified by the Sheriff to clear the same. 
But this does not seem to have been 
done ; for it ap])ears by a draft sub- 
mitted to Council in 1747, by Joseph 
Bonsall and John Davis, that scarcely 
any part of the road as travelled, cor- 
responded with the road laid out in 
1 706. The travelled road, except for 
a very short distance, (at which end 
or what place is not stated,) being from 
twenty to forty perches or more south 
of that laid out in 1706. In the ist 
Penna. Archives, pp. 767-8, are copies 
of two petitions asking for a re-survey 
of the line of the road, &c., signed by 
a number of the prominent inhabitants 
of the county, and read in Council 
17th August, 1747, as follows: 

" To the Honorable President and Coitneil of 
the Pren'incc of Pennsylvania. 

The Petition of the subscribers, Commis- 
sioners and Inhabitants of the County of Ches- 
ter, in said Province, Humbly sheweth, That 
whereas it appears after strict search made 
that there are divers jjarts of the King's Road 
leading from Cob's creek jjridge to over Ches- 
ter liridge to the line of New-Castle county, 
not to be found upon Record, or any return 
thereof made. 

Therefore, as well for the benefit of the 
Publick as the satisfaction of private Persons, 
Likewise for the erecting of Bridges & repair- 
ing of said Highway, We your petitioners Hum- 
bly crave that you will be pleas'd to take the 
same into consideration and appoint such men 
as in your wisdom shall think proper, to lay 
out such parts of said Road as are deficient. 
And your Petitioners (as in duty l)ound) shall 
ever pray. August the 13th, 1747. 



Jacob Hjblwrd, 
Samuel Bunting, 
John Griffith, 
Job Harvey, 
George Wood, 
Thos. Pearson, 
Isa. Pearson, 



John Davis, 
Joshua Thomson, 
Thomas Cummings, 
John Baldwin, 
John Taylor, 
David Cowpland, 
Jacob Howell, Sr., 



John Paschall, 
John Pearson, 
Geo. Ashbridge, 



John Mather, 
James Mather, 
Joshua Ash. 



The second petition is indorsed, 
" Petition of George Gray, &c., for a 
warrant to survey the road leading from 
Philadelphia to Chester, and is as fol- 
lows : 

" 7() the Hvitorahle, the President and Council 
of the J'ro'i'inee of Pennsylvania . 

The humble petition of George Gray, keeper 
of the lower Ferry over Schuylkill, on the 
Road frt)m the city of Philadelphia to Chester, 
and others living in the county of Chester, and 
using said road, Shewtth, that the said Road 
leading from South st., of the said city, over 
the said Ferry to Cobb's creek bridge near 
Darby, in the county of Chester, has time out 
of mind been the only old and accustomed 
Road to Darby, Chester, New-Castle and the 
Lower Counties. 

That the inhabitants of the Townships 
through which the said Road passes, not 
doubting its being a recorded Road, have 
hitherto duly repaired and amended the same, 
but now being apprized that it either has not 
been regularly recorded, or that the record 
thereof cannot be found, so that they are 
not obliged to repair the same or contribute 
thereto, the said Road is at present much out 
of Repair, growing worse, and will in Winter 
become utterly impassable or dangerous to 
travel with Horses, Chaises, or other Car- 
riages^ unless the same he repaired before the 
ensuing Winter. 

That your Petitioners are informed that if 
the said Road was surveyed and recorded ac- 
cording to Law, the same would and ought to 
be from Time to Time repaired by the Inhab- 
itants of the Townships through which the 
same lyes, whereby the same, being a great 
and much travelled Road would become safe 
and passable. 

Therefore your Petitioners humbly pray the 
Honorable, the President and Council, would 
be pleased to grant an Order or Warrant for 
surveying the said Road, so that it may be 
surveyed and recorded, and sufficiently amend- 
ed and kept in Repair, or that you would be 
]ileased to give such other Order or Warrant 
concerning the same as the nature of the case 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



61 



may recjuire. And your Petitioners will ever 

pray, &c. 

Joseph Bons.ill, George Gray, 

Samuel Levis, George Wood, 

John Davis, Jonathan Puschall, 

Job Harvey, Thos. Pearson, 

Samuel Bunting, William Home. 

On the 8th of Sept., 1 747, the Coun- 
cil appointed Caleb Cowpland, Joseph 
Parker, Joseph Bonsall, Samuel Levis, 
James Mather, John Davis, Peter 
Dicks, Thomas Pearson, and John 
Sketchley, or any five of them, in con- 
nection with seven persons from Phil- 
adelphia, to lay out the Road from 
"the Division line which parts Phila- 
delphia county from Chester county 
to the limits of the county of New 
Castle." 

On March 22, 1747, five of the 
committee from Delaware County re- 
ported that it would be injurious to 
property owners to lay out the road 
between Darby and Chester in accord- 
ance with the courses and distances 
given, (the survey of 1706 had been 
found), and asked for further powers, 
to keep that part of the road where it 
already ran. The Council thereupon 
ordered, that the road be laid out as 
" it now runs, making no other altera- 
tions than what may be absolutely ne- 
cessary to make it more regular and 
direct in some Places, or more com- 
modious to the Fording Places or 
Bridges that are now used on the said 
Road." 



VIII. 

When Upland was first settled, and 
for many years afterwards, the country 
in the vicinity was full of wild animals 
and game. Wolves were numerous, 
and bounty was paid for each one 
killed. Deer were quite common, 
large herds wandered through the 



country ; and it has only been during 
the present century that they have en- 
tirely disappeared. When I was about 
12 years old, I attended the last deer 
hunt in Delaware County. The deer 
ran through Chester, and jumped off 
the upper pier into the Delaware, and 
was followed by two of the hounds. 
Some men in a boat pursued and cap- 
tured it at the lower end of Chester 
Island, and returned with it and the 
dogs to town. I remember that I rode 
a gray, blooded horse called Buzzard. 
The deer was a tame one,, however, and 
let loo.se for the purpose of a hunt. 
There were a great many fox hounds 
about Chester when I was a boy, but 
I do not recollect ever hearing of a fox 
hunt, although I do recall several drag 
hunts. But to return to the old times. 
Black bears were frequently to be met 
with, and in cold weather, sometimes 
visited the farm houses in search of 
food. Wild turkeys and pigeons visit- 
I ed the country in immense flocks, in 
the fall of the year. The foxes were 
great pests to the farmers, lurking 
around their barns, and carrying off 
poultry. Squirrels, rabbits, pheasants 
and partridges abounded. When I was 
a boy living with my step-grandfather, 
in Ridley, about a mile south-west of 
Morton station, I remember well going 
out with him gunning for flying squir- 
rels and wild pigeons in Carr's thicket, 
not far distant from his residence. At 
the end of the lane leading to " Our 
house," stood at that time a magnifi- 
cent pine tree ; it was a perfect cone 
of green, its lower limbs sweeping the 
ground. It still stands, although shorn 
by the winters' winds of many of its 
branches. 

Mr. John Fairlamb Hill, my step- 
grandfather, died at Chester, June 14, 
1870, in the 90th year of his age. He 



(VJ 



IIISTOKV OF CHP]STEK 



was at one time a very prominent man 
in the county, and from his stone quar- 
ries at Cn///i, Ridley and Naaman's 
Creeks, he furnished much of the 
stone used in the Delaware Break- 
water, near Cape Henlopen, He mar- 
ried, July lo, 1804, my grandmother, 
Eleanor Crosby Martin, the widow of 
Dr. William Martin, of Chester, who 
died of the yellow fever, caught in at- 
tending the crew of a British vessel, 
lying off Chester, Sept. 28, 1798. She 
was a daughter of John Crosby, late an 
Associate Judge of Delaware County, 
and Ann Peirce, his wife, of Ridley 
Creek quarries. 

In a MS. entitled " a brief account 
of Pennsylvania, in a letter to Rich- 
ard Peters, in answer to some queries 
of a gentleman in Europe, by Lewis 
Evans, 1753," it is stated: "We 
have coarse stones for building every- 
where, and a quarry not far from Ches- 
ter, affords a sort of .stone nearly re- 
sembling frce-sto7ie, but its ordinary 
muddy color is no recommendation to 
it." Mr. Evans, at that time, could 
have seen only the surface-stone of the 
(piarries of Delaware County, which 
really is of a muddy color in some 
localities. The stone taken from the 
"Cro-sby quarries," at Ridley Creek, 
for the last forty years, has been a 
beautiful free-stouc^ and J have often 
been surprised that it has not been 
more^ generally used for building pur- 
poses. Much of it is sold for cellar 
walls, but there are some houses in 
Delaware County built entirely of it ; 
however, they are built with the rough, 
uncut stone, which shows none of its 
beauty, which is of a handsome light 
gray color. Some fine specimens of 
this stone can be .seen in the abut- 
ments of the wire bridge over Callow- 
hill Street, in Philadeli)hia, with the 



letters I. Y. H, cut on them, meaning 
John F. Hill, who leased the quarries 
and furnished the stone for that work. 

The "Crosby quarries" were in 
operation in the year 1789. See 16 
Provincial Records, p. 100, where is 
recorded : An order was directed by 
the Supreme Executive Council to be 
drawn on the treasurer in favor of 
John Crosby, for ^^53 13.?. 4^/. for 
stone for repairing the bank at Mud 
Island. The green stone that is now 
(juarried near Lenni, is much used for 
building purposes, and much admired. 
The quarry at Lenni, is owned by Col. 
Archer N. Martin, a son of Robert L. 
Martin, and the new buildings of the 
University of Pennsylvania, are in part 
erected with this green stone. 

Mr. Evans, in the letter referred to 
says, "Chester, Bristol and Newtown, 
have been long at a stand." I may 
add the former is now moving, l)ut the 
two latter stand still. I remember 
saying to a witty friend of mine, Whit- 
ton Evans, in salutation one day, when 
business was very dull, " Are you 
still on the wharf, Whit?" His eyes 
twinkled as he passed on, saying qui- 
etly, " Very." 

Many writers have given an account 
of William Penn's arrival at Ui)land, 
on Sunday the 29th of Oct., 1682,* 
and the traditionary story of his 
changing the name of the town to 
that of Chester, at the request of his 
friend, Pearson. Armstrong suggests 

*Thc " Welcome" arrived at Upland, now' 
Chester, on Oct. 28, 1682; positive evidence 
of this fact exists in an old Manuscript Hook 
of Evan Oliver, a passenger in that vessel, he 
says : " We came out of Radnorshire in Wales 
about y® beginning of y" 6 mo. (August), '82 & 
arrived at Ujiland in jjcnsilvania in America, 
y« 28th of ye 8 month, '82." See leUer of Benj. 
Ferris lo Edward Armstrong, of 12 mo. 31, 
185 1, in jmssession of the Historical Society 
of rcnnsylvania. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



08 



that Pearson's first name was Robert; 
another writer, a correspondent to the 
Republican oi Oct. 6, 1871, gives the 
Christian name of Pearson, as Thomas, 
and says he was the maternal grand- 
father of Benjamin West, the celebrat- 
ed painter. He also says, Printzdorp 
is included in the present South Ward 
of Chester. William Penn in one of 
his letters about laying out a city, 
alludes to Chester, and mentions that 
he gave it its present name. I will 
give the whole account .as related, of 
Fcn?t's voyage and the change of name : 
It appears that on Wednesday, the 30th 
of Aug., 1682, William Penn sailed 
from England in the ship "Welcome," 
Robert Greenway, master, in company 
with about 100 emigrants, destined for 
the Province of Pennsylvania; most of 
the passengers were members of the 
Society of Friends, chiefly from Sus- 
sex. During the voyage, the small- 
pox broke out on board the vessel, and 
thereby many of the passengers died. 
Otherwise the voyage was prosperous, 
although a very long one, and on 
the 27th day of Oct., 1682, the ship 
arrived and anchored in safety at New 
Castle, on the Delaware. An incom- 
plete list of the passengers will be found 
in a note to the published address of 
Edward Armstrong, before the Histo- 
rical Society of Pennsylvania, at Ches- 
ter, on the 8th of Nov., 1851, p. 22, 
&c. On the 28th of Oct., 1682, the 
' ' Welcome ' ' anchored off Upland, op- 
posite the residence of Robert Wade, 
and William Penn landed at his seat 
of government. Upon landing,* Penn 
determined to change the name of 
the place and " turning around to his 

*The landing may not have taken place 
until the next day, Sunday, the 29th. That 
<lay has l:)een called the day of arrival, because 
I'enn on that day wrote a letter from Upland 
to Herman. See Hazard's Annals, ji. 599. 



friend Pearson, one of his own Soci- 
ety, who had accompanied him in the 
ship, he said : ' Providence has brought 
us here safe, thou hast been the com- 
panion of my perils, what wilt thou 
that I should call this place ?' Pear- 
son said ' Chester, in remembrance of 
the city whence I came.' Penn re- 
plied that it should be called Chester, 
and that when he divided the land 
into counties, one of them should be 
called by the same name, all of which 
was afterwards done." Dr. Smith is 
very severe upon Penn, for changing 
the name of the oldest town in the 
Province for a mere whim, for there is 
no doubt he did authoritatively give 
Upland the name of Chester, because 
he says so in one of his letters. But 
the above occurrence, as related, is 
too theatrical to be believed ; besides 
the friends of Penn are all well known, 
and I find no mention of a Pearson 
among them, and his first name is 
not even given, nor is it known that 
any person of the name of Pearson 
was on board of the "Welcome," 
although Armstrong's list contains the 
mythical Pearson, by which the ex- 
tremely doubtful story is bolstered up. 

Where he got his Pearson from, 

he does not say, but I suppose he found 
him in the story as related by some 
person with a vivid imagination. 

It has been said that Upland Avas 
called Chester, by the English, who had 
settled there before the arrival of Penn, 
and their doing so was very natural, 
if they did so, as most of them came 
from Cheshire, in England, and the 
city of Old Chester, from the neigh- 
borhood of which they nearly all came, 
was the Shire town of Cheshire, which 
is only a corruption of Chester-shire. 
Dr. Smith in his History, Appendix p. 
542, note H, takes the same position, 



G4 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



ami states that, " At a meeting of 
Friends held at Chester, nth of 7 
mo., 1682, (before the arrival of the 
rro])rietary, ) it was agreed to hold a 
meeting every first day of the week, 
' A/ the Court House at Chester. ' This 
last fact is alike conclusive, that there 
was then at ^^A/;/^/, a building known as 
' The Court House,' which could hard- 
ly have been any other than the House 
of Defence, as it is that the town had 
been called Chester before it authori- 
tatively received that name from the 
Proprietary. ' ' 

A correspondent in the American 
Historical Record, vol. ii. p. 79, (Gil- 
bert Cope,) in reference to the fore- 
going statements and the alleged ex- 
tract from the minutes, that Chester 
was so called before that name was 
given to the place by Penn, says : "So 
far as I am aware, the only proof to 
sustain the latter theory is contained 
in the records of Chester Monthly 
Meeting of Friends, the minutes of 
which for a period of forty years after 
its establishment, are in one large vol- 
ume. Different authors have given 
what purports to be the first minute 
on tlie records thus : 

''reiilh of the Eleventh month, 1681. A 
monthly meeting of Friends belonging to Mar- 
cus Hook alias Chester and Upland, held at 
the house of Robert Wade.' We must su]> 
pose that the authors in question, did not ex- 
amine the record for themselves, as the word 
Chichester distinctly occurs instead of Chester. 
However, at a meeting held 'The nth of y* 
7th mo., 1682' — still before the arrival of 
Penn — ' It is agreed by this meeting that a 
mpeling shall be held for the servis and wor- 
ship of {]od eveiy first day of the week, att 
the Court House all Chester.' 

Now what is the history of this first 
volume of minutes? It contains the 
evidence that about the year 1712, 
'I'homas ("halklcy, an eminent minis- 



ter in the Society, and a good pen- 
man, was employed to transcribe the 
original minutes within a large book 
obtained for the purpose. This may 
have been at the time he was tempo- 
rarily detained at Chester by the sick- 
ness of his wife. However correct he 
may have been in his religious views, 
he certainly had not the future local 
historian in his eye when he transcribed 
those minutes. Fortunately the origi- 
nal record has been preserved, and 
although a part of the first date is 
missing, yet the minutes read thus : — 
[torn] ' day of y^ 11 month, 1681, a 
monthly meeting of f rends belonging to 
Marcus hooke er' Upland heeld then at 
Robert Wads house.' Again, 'At 
the men' s meeting at Upland, the nth 
yth mo., 1682. * * It 7C'as then 
agreed y^ a meeting shall be held for y^ 
service &= worship of god cveiy first 
day * * * 

at y^ Court House at Upland. ' The 
name of Upland is frequently, l)ut that 
of Chester never mentioned in these 
old minutes, until the nth mo., 1682." 
The proof thereof seems to be conclu- 
sive, that William Penn did change 
the name of Upland to Chester, and 
that the minute copied by Dr. Smith 
is from the incorrect copy made by 
Thomas Chalkley. The cpiotations 
above, in italics, are the exact words 
of the original. 

In Armstrong's list before referred 
to, are some errors, which I correct 
here. From an entry that will be found 
in the proceedings of the Race Street 
Monthly Meeting of Friends, at Phila- 
deli)hia, it appears that William Brad- 
ford and Elizabeth, his wife, brought 
certificate (which is set out in fiill on 
the record), from Devonshire House 
Monthly Meeting, London, dated 6 
mo. 12, 1685, signed by 19 Friends. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



65 



He did not, therefore, come in the 
" Welcome," as stated. 

John Sharpies (mentioned in Arm- 
strong's list), came from Ratherton or 
Hadderton, in the county of Chester, 
England. He married Jane Moore of 
the same place, in 1662. They had 
seven children, Phebe, John, Thomas, 
James, Caleb, Jane and Joseph. The 
whole family, with the exception of 
Thomas, who died at sea, 5 mo. (July), 
landed at Upland on the 4th of the 
6th mo. (Aug.), 1682, more than 
two months before the arrival of the 
"Welcome." See Records of Ches- 
ter Monthly Meeting. In one place in 
the old record, it is plainly written, 
that " Thomas Sharpless, son of John 
and Jane Sharpless, dyed the 1 7th day 
of y' first mo., 1682, at sea." Else- 
where it states that "Thomas Sharp- 
less Sonne of John and Jane Sharpless, 
dyed 17th of 5th mo., 1682, buried 
in sea." 

At Sharpless' Mills on Ridley Creek, 
there is quite a curiosity. Engraven 
on a rock on the banks of the creek, 
are the initials I. S., 1682, which marks 
the spot where John Sharpless, the 
original settler, erected his cabin, on 
his purchase that year. In the record 
of the Sharpless family, p. 14, printed 
in 1 81 6, which is a very rare book, it 
is set forth, they took up part of the 
land purchased of William Penn, on 
Ridley Creek, about two miles north- 
west from Chester, where they fell a 
large tree, and took shelter among the 
boughs thereof, about six weeks, in 
which time they built a cabin against a 
rock, which answered for their chim- 
ney back, and now contains the date of 
the year when the cabin was built, viz., 
1682, in which they dwelt 20 years, 
and there they all died, except the 
mother and three sons, in which time 



Joseph learned the trade of house 
carpenter, and when of age built the 
first dwelling house, which is now 
standing and occupied by one of their 
descendants. Part of the original 
floors are still in use, being fastened 
down with wooden pins of about an 
inch in diameter, instead of nails. It 
is a sizeable two-story dwelling ; the 
walls of stone. 

Some description here of the city in 
England, from which our Chester takes 
its name, may be of interest. Ches- 
ter's '■^god-mother,'''' derives its name 
from the Latin word castra, signify- 
ing ar«/;//. This ancient fortified city 
is one of the oldest cathedral towns in 
England. The old original town is 
enclosed by walls two miles or more 
in circumference, which now form a 
favorite promenade. The settlement 
of the place dates from the year A. D. 
58, when a Roman colony was estab- 
lished on the banks of the river Dee ; 
and the site of the town was the ca;n/> 
of the xxth Legion, called the " Vic- 
TRix;" hence its ndiXi\e Legion' s Cas- 
tra, corrupted by the Roman soldiers 
into Legicestra, whence Chester. 
From that date until about 150 years 
ago, Chester has been the scene of 
many eventful occurrences, battles and 
sieges ; at times the peaceful abode 
of royalty, sometimes its prisen ; the 
history of which, and of the town, 
would fill half a dozen volumes. Its 
more ancient parts remind one of 
the description we have of cities of 
the middle ages. Along its streets 
are to be found antiquated houses, 
built with story overhanging story, 
with outside stairways, leading to 
balconies above, which overshadow 
the curious old stories beneath. So . 
very quaint and so very quiet are the 
more ancient streets of the town, that 



(H. 



HISTORY OF CUESTEK. 



OIK' would hardly feci surprised, were 
he to meet a cavalcade of knights in 
armor, riding up the thoroughfare, 
with the lances, banners, and all the 
warlike trappings of several hundred 
years ago, or see emerging from a by- 
street a gay Cavalier of a later day, 
with slouching hat and trailing plume, 
escorting along the pave a ladye fair, 
all hoops, curls, feathers and ribbons. 
The principal attractions to the visit- 
ors, are the grand old walls built by 
the Romans, the remains of the old 
castle, once the palace and abode of the 
Earls of Chester, nothing of which 
now remains except the Tower, called 
the Tower of Jn/his Agricola, the 
Cathedral and its ancient buildings, 
which are wonderful specimens of the 
exuberant architecture of the olden 
times. Many of these old buildings 
are in excellent order and well pre- 
served, and a marvel to see. The city 
is encircled by a charming country, 
through which flows the river Dee, 
whose beauties have been sung by 
many an English poet. Such is Ches- 
ter in the mother-land. 

In (Gordon's History of Pennsylva- 
nia, p. yS, it is stated : 

" The survey of the euunliy inhabitocl by 
the Europeans having l)een completed, (in the 
year 1682,) the Proprietary divided it into six 
counties; three in the Province and a like 
numl)er in the lenitories. 'l"he former he 
named Philadelphia, liucks and Chester; the 
latter New Castle, Kent and Sussex. The 
seals adopted by the Legislature for the three 
counties, are indicative of the simplicity of the 
times. ■ That of Philadelphia was an Anchor; 
for Hucks, a Tree and a Vine ; for Chester, a 
Plough ; for New Castle, a Cassia Plant ; for 
Kent, three Ears of Indian Corn; for Sussex, 
a Wheat Sheaf." 

The seal of Chester County, on an 
old deed of May i, 1767, from JoJm 
Morton, sheriff, to John Crosby, (my 



g. g. grandfather, ) is the arms of I'enn, 
with a Plough for a crest, and the le- 
gend around the seal of " Chester — 
William Penn, Propriator and Gover- 
nor." 

On the 7th of Dec, 1682, William 
Penn held his first legislative Assembly 
at Chester, at which time the Great 
Code of Laws, (containing 61 chap- 
ters,) that had been prepared in Eng- 
land, was passed and ordered to be 
taught in the schools of the Province 
and Territories. The three lower 
comities on the Delaware were annex- 
ed to the Province, and the Dutch, 
Swedes and other foreigners natural- 
ized. It has been universally believ- 
ed until quite recently, and is yet by 
many people in Chester, that " the 
first General Assembly of Pennsylva- 
nia, and the territories thereunto be- 
longing," held at Chester on the 7th 
of Dec, 1682, (i Laws of Fa., p. i,) 
met and held its sessions in the rear 
part of the old building which recently 
stood on the west side of Front Street, 
(now Edgmont Road,) near the mar- 
gin of Chester Creek, and occupied 
then by Samuel Long, for his cooper- 
shop. This structure was familiarly 
called "The Old Assembly House," 
and is alluded to and designated as 
such by Benjamin Ferris in his history, 
by the Rev. Richard D. Hall, in his 
sketches of Chester, and other writers, 
but it appears now that this old building 
was erected by Friends, and was the 
first FrieJids' Meeting Hause Imilt in 
Chester, and was never used for any 
other purpose whatever ; in fact it was 
not built until 1693, and the first As- 
sembly met in 1682, eleven years be- 
fore it was erected. This disposes of 
that part of the matter. No doubt the 
first Assembly held its first sessions in 
the Court House, which was then the 



HISTORY (3F CHESTER. 



67 



" House of Defence," as Dr. Smith 
says: "It was the only public build- 
ing erected in Upland at that time, of 
which we have any knowledge. ' ' Wat- 
son in his Annals of Philadelphia, vol. 
i. p. 128, ed. 1856, says: "The oaken 
chair in which William Penn sat as 
chief of that Assembly, is said to be 
now in the po.ssession of the aged and 
respectable widow of Col. (Persifor) 
Frazer. ' ' 

At Chester, the first meeting for 
Divine worship in Pennsylvania, by 
the Society of Friends, was establish- 
ed. It was visited by William Ed- 
mundson, in 1675. Proud, states: — 
"In that year (1675), Robert Wade 
and divers others came over, and meet- 
ings were regularly held there from 
that time." Ferris says, " Chester is 
located in a rich fertile district ; the 
situation is very plea.sant, on the N. 
E. side of a fine mill stream, naviga- 
ble a short distance from its mouth." 
He erroneously states, however, that 
Chester is situated on a point of fast 
land, and that " Wade's house was on 
a beautiful rising ground, on the south 
side of Chester Creek, where he had a 
landing place." 

At the time of Penn's landing all 

the country between Marcus Hook and 

Chester, was called Finland. The 

gentleman to whom Queen Christina, 

in 1653, granted all the land, was a 

native of Finland, hence without 

doubt its name. There were many 

Finns among the early settlers of this 

country. The word Hook is supposed 

to mean a promontory, or a point of 

land projecting into the water, and 

the word Marcus, to be a corruption 

of the name of an old Indian chief 

who lived at the Hook, {at the point. ^ 

His name was Maarte, and is referred 

to by Commissary Hudde, in his re- 
in 



port, in 1645, when he visited the 
Swedish settlements on the Delaware, 
in which he speaks of " two of the 
principal Sachems," on the west side 
of the Delaware, named '■'■ Maaiie, 
and Wissetne?tets,'' as grantors of the 
land to the Dutch. See Report, p. 
439; also, Ferris' History, p. 134. 
But as Hook Creek on Holmes' map, 
1684, is called '^Marcus Creek,'" I 
think the creek took its name from 
some settler named Marcus. At this 
time there are twelve families of that 
name living in Philadelphia. The 
land between Marcus Creek and Naa- 
maji's Creek was, in 1684, called 
Marcus Hook, and was undoubtedly 
the Swedish name of that tract. Naa- 
niati's Creek did, however, take its 
name frpm an old Indian chief, who 
was an orator of the Minquas tribe, 
now conjinonly called the Mingoes, 
located in that vicinity. 

William Penn wrote from Philadel- 
phia, Jan. 9, 1683. to the Duke of 
Ormond, then Viceroy of Ireland, 
among other things, as follows : 

" I thank God I ame safely arrived in yo 
province y' the providence of God & Bounty 
of the King hath made myne, & which the 
credit, prudence, & industry of the people 
concerned w'"^ me must render considerable. 
— I was received by the ancient Inhabitants 
wth much kindness & respect, & the rest 
brought it w"' them. There may be about 
four thousand souls in all. I speak, I think, 
within compass ; we expect an increase from 
France, Holland & Germany, as well as our 
native country. 

" The land is generally good, well water'd 
& not so thick of wood as I immaggined ; 
there are also many open places y' have been 
old Indian fields. The trees y' grow here are 
the Mulberry, white and red. Walnut, black, 
gray and hickoi7; Poplar, Cedar, Cyprus, 
Chestnut, Ash, Sarsafrax, Gum, Pine, Spruce, 
Oake, black, white, red ; Spanish Chestnut & 
Swamp, w'^'^ has a leaf like a willow, and is 



68 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



most lastinjj. The food the woods yield us 
are Klks, Deer, Racoons, Beaver, Ral)l)itls, 
Turkey, Phesants, Heath-birds, Pidgeons & 
Partridges innumerably ; we need no setting 
dogs to ketch, they run by droves into the 
house in cold weather. Our Rivers have also 
plenty of excellent fish & water fowl, as Stur- 
geon, Rock, Shad, Herring, Cod-fish, flat- 
heads, Roach and Perch & Trout in inland 
streams. Of fowls, the Swan, white grey and 
black ; Goose & Cranes ; the best Duck & Teal 
I ever eate, & Snipe & Curhie, with y* Snow- 
bird are also excellent. 

" The air is sweet and cleare, w"^^ makes a 
screen and steady sky as in the more southern 
parts of France. — Our Summers & Winters are 
commonly once in three years in extreames, 
but the winters seldom last above ien weeks 
& rarely begin till yo latter end of December. 
The days are above two hours longer & the 
sun much hotter here than with you, w«'> 
makes some recompense for y^ long nights of 
y" winter season, as well as the woods y' make 
cheap & great fires. 

" We have of graine. Wheat, Maize, Rye, 
Barley, Oats, several excellent sort of beans 
& pease, pumkens, water & mus-mellons, all 
English roots & garden stuff, good fruit and 
excellent sider. The Peach we have in divers 
kinds & very good & in great abundance. The 
Vine of several sorts (& y«sign wth us of rich 
land) is very fruitful & tho' not so sweet as 
some I have eaten in Europe, yet it makes a 
good wine, and the worst a good vinegar. I 
have observed three sorts, the great grape y* 
has green, red & black on y" same tree, the 
muskedell, and black little grape (the fox 
grape I take it), which is the best, and may 
be improved to an excellent wine. These are 
spontaneous. 

" Of the cattle we have the Horse, not very 
handsome, but good — low cattle and hogs in 
much plenty and sheep increase apace." 

It will be noticed that the Proprie- 
tary makes no mention of pear or 
jjlum trees, nor of the wild cherry, 
several different kinds of which are in- 
digenous, as is also the persimmon, 
crab-apple, and the wild plum (red), 
a delicious fruit tree, which was very 
common about 25 years ago, in Dela- 
ware and Chester Coimties. As it is 



far superior to the common blue plum, 
I have often wondered that it has not 
been cultivated, but I never saw it 
growing except in the woods ; and of 
the smaller- bushes and fruits, people 
now make wine of the elderberry, 
blackberry, gooseberry, currants, black 
and red, and eat the wild raspberry, 
strawberry, dewberry, hawberry and 
huckleberry. 

From "An Account of the Lands 
in Pennsylvania, granted by William 
Penn, Esq., Chief Proprietary and 
Governor of that Province to several 
Purchasers within the Kingdom of 
England, Ireland and Scotland," i 
Pa. Archives, p. 40, I extract some 
well-known Chester and Delaware 
County names, with the number of 
acres purchased by each. 



Richard Baker, 


looo 


Joseph Martin, 


5000 


Tho. & Sam Buckley 


, 503 


Walter Martin, 


500 


William Carter, 


500 


Richard Mills, 


250 


Thomas Cobourn, 


500 


Thomas Minshall, 


625 


Richard Crossby, 


1000 


Randall Maylin, 


250 


Robert Dunton, 


500 


Thomas Paschal, 


500 


John Edge, 


125 


John Peirce, 


250 


Edward Edwards, 


250 


Richard Pierce, 


1000 


Nathaniel Evans, 


500 


Thomas Pierce, 


I coo 


Enoch Flower, 


2COO 


Thomas Powell. 


500 


Joseph Hall, 


503 


Caleb Pusey, 


250 


John Hewcs, 


500 


John Pusey, 


250 


John Hill, 


500 


Joseph Richards, 


500 


John Hoskins, 


250 


John Sharplcss, 


1000 


Richard Jordan, 


250 


Christopher Taylor, 


5000 


William Lane, 


500 


Robert Taylor, 


1000 


Charles Lloyd, ) 
Marg't Davis, / 


5000 


Richard Townsend, 


250 


Robert Vernon, 


625 


William Lloyd, 


20C0 


Thomas Vernon, 


625 


Robert Lodge, 


500 


Ralph Ward, 


250 


Jane Lownds, 


ISO 


Edward West, 


1000 


Henry Maddock, 


750 


John West, 


1250 


Richard Marsh, 


10,000 


Thomas Woolfe, 


250 


Isaac Martin, 


500 


Peter & J. Worrel, 


500 


John Martin, 


500 


Richard Worrall, 


500 



There are some familiar names to 
Delaware County folks, in the follow- 
ing lists of Arrivals, copied from a 
manuscript book in possession of the 
Historical Society of Penna., entitled 
"Registry of Arrivals in Philadel])hia, 
1682-86." 

The "Welcome," Rob. Greenaway, 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



69 



master, from London, arrived at Up- I 
land about the end of the 8th mo., 
1682. Richard Townsend, carpenter, 
servant to y^ Society for 5 years, to 
have ^50 per ann. salary, Ann Towns- 
end, his wife, and Hannah, their 
daughter, Wm. Smith, Nathan Harri- 
son, Barthol. Green, his servants, each 
for 7 years. 

The ^^ America,'''' Joseph Wasey, 
master, from London, arrived 20th, 
6th mo., 1683. Jacob Shoemaker, 
born in y'' Palatinate, in Germany, 
servant* to Daniel Pastorius & Com- 
pany. 

In the " Endeavour'' of London, a 
Ketch, Geo. Thorp, master, which 
arrived here the 29, 7 mo., 1683. 

Fran : Rosell late of Maxfield in 
Cheshire in Old England, millin'' ; 
Michall Rosell late of the same place 
husbandman : 

Tho : Janeway & Margaret his wife 
late of Pownall in Cheshire, husband- 
man : children — Jacob, Thomas, Abel 
and Joseph Janeway : servants John 
Neild, Hannah ffalkner : 

Jos. Miln'' & Ann his mother, late of 
Poonnell, blacksmith ; children Sarah 
and Ralph Miln'. 

Ralph Miln"" & Rachell his wife late 
of ditto, carpenter: child Robert Miln''. 

Tho : Pierson & Marg' his wife late 
of ditto, mason : John his Brother and 
Mary Smith his sisf all of the same 
place : 

John Nickson & Margery his wife 
late of Powell in Cheshire, husband- 
man : children — John, Tho:, James, 
Nehemiah, Joseph & Shedrick Nick- 
son : servant — James Witak'' : 

Mary, Jane, Margery & Eliz : Nick- 
son (children) : 

* Servant, means apprentice ; and they were 
generally relatives whose expenses were to be 
paid by the term of service mentioned. 



John Clous & Margery his wife late 
of Gosworth in Cheshire, husbandman : 
children W"- Margery & Rebeckah 
Clous : servants — Jos. Charley, John 
Richardson, Sam : Hough : 

Richard Hough, late of Maxfield, in 
Cheshire, husbandman : servants — 
ffran : Hough, Jam : Sutton, Tho. 
Woodhouse, Mary Woodhouse : 

Fran : Stanfield «& Graas his wife 
late of Garton in Cheshire, Husband- 
man : children Jam:, Mary, Sarah, 
Eliz:, Grass & Hannah Stanfield: 
servants — Dan : Browne, Tho : Marsey, 
Isa: Brookesby, Rob: Sidbotham, 
John Smith, Rob' Bryan, Wm. Rud- 
way, Tho : Sidbotham : 

John Maddock, joyn'', Richard Clous, 
joyn"", John Clous, Shoemaker, Char : 
Kilbeck, Glover, all of Nantwich in 
Cheshire : 

Geo. Philips and Ralph Duckard, 
servants to Henry Maddock. 

Daniell Sutton, Taylor, John Preson"", 
blacksmith, both of Maxfield in Ches- 
hire, & Jo : Charlesworth, Tan"" of the 
same place : John Oudfield, Taylor, of 
the same place. 

John Howell & Mary his wife late 
of Budworth in Cheshire, Husband- 
man, and Hannah his daughf : 

Mary Taylor, late of Chatterwitch 
in Cheshire: children Isaack, Tho:, 
Jona : , Pheb : , Mary & Martha Taylor : 

Anne Robotham, serv' to the master 
of the s** Ketch. 

Mary Taylor was the wife of Robert, 
who had probably come over pre- 
viously. They were ancestors of Bay- 
ard Taylor. Her children's names 
follow hers, though one, Josiah, is not 
given ; but he probably came with his 
father. Their son Thomas afterward 
married Hannah, the dau: of John and 
Mary Howell. Mary Howell, her 
mother, was a sister to Daniel William- 



70 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



son, and became the second wife of 
Walter Martin, of Chichester, while 
another daughter, Barbara Howell, 
married (ist) Walter Martin, Jr., and 
(2nd) Francis Ruth. 

William Morgan and Elizabeth his 
wife, both arrived at Philadelphia in 
the " Morning Star, Thos. Hayes, 
master, in y* 9th mo., 1683." 

John Richards and Susan his wife, 
and daughters Hannah and Bridget, 
and Hugh and Daniel Harris, the two 
latter from Macchinleth, Montgomery- 
shire, arrived 17th, 7 mo., 1684, in the 
Vine, of Liverpool, W^illiam Preeson, 
master. 

In the ''Amity,'" Christopher Sib- 
thorp, brazier, and Barbara his wife, 
of London ; Thos. Poppitt and Bar- 
bara Poppitt ; the children of Chris- 
topher Sibthorp's wife, Barbary ; and 
Wm. Pike, their servant, bound in 
London, for 7 years, and had about 
4 years to serve when they arrived 
here, which was in ship above written, 
y* 23d 3d mo., 1685. 

Thomas Carter, Sr., and Frances 
his wife, Thomas, Henry and John, 
his sons, and Ann his daughter, ar- 
rived in the .ship "Bristol Merchant," 
John Stephens, master, loth, 9 mo., 
1685. Samuel Hall and John Ward 
came in the same vessel, at the same 
time. 

" The Vn'Icorne from Hristoll, arrived here 
this i6th of the loth month, 1685, Thomas 
Cooper, commaiuler. The Passengers' names 
are as followeth : 

Daniel Flower, Margerj' Martin, 

Mary Bradwell, Mary Martin, 

Mary Bradwell, Jr., Sarah Martin, 

Sarah Bradwell, Hannah Martin, 

Thomas Mixon, Rachel Martin, 

Tho. Mixon, Jr., Tho. Hopes, 

Philip Doling, John Hopes, 

Mary Townscnd, Moses Mcndcnhall, 

Hannah Smith, Godden Walter, 

Joshua Chart, Annie Morgan, 

Jane, -j Faith Wotten, 

► Chart, Eliz. Philpot, 

Henry Laking, 



John Roberts, 

Jos. 

Ben. 

Tho. Tiislin, 

Tho. Martin, 



[■ Morga 



Sarah Laking, 
Susanna Laking, 
Moses Laking, 
John Ironmonger. 



Jane, -j 
Sam. M 
Jane, ) 



The last five names, in the original, 
are in a different handwriting from 
all the rest of the paper and names. 

Of the arrivals in the Unicorne, 
Thomas Martin was from Bedwin 
Magna, in Wiltshire, and his wife 
Margery, was a sister to John, Benj. 
and Moses Mendenhall. I suppose 
Mary, Sarah, Hannah, and Rachel, 
were children of Thomas and Mar- 
gery. Thomas and John Hopes (pro- 
perly Hope,) afterwards settled in Ken- 
nett, or what is now Pennsbury town- 
ship. I may mention, there was a John 
Martin, from Edgcott, in Berkshire, 
who settled in Middletown. His only 
child, Thomas, married Mary, daughter 
of Giles Knight, of Byberry. There 
was also a John Martin, who came over 
in 1 68 1, as a servant, and received his 
50 acres " head land," which was laid 
out near Brandywine. 

The ship ''Delaware,'" from Bristol, 
England, John Moore, commander, 
arrived here the nth of the 5th mo., 
1684. Thomas Greene, husbandman, 
and Margaret, his wife, Thomas and 
John Greene, his sons, Mary Guest, 
his servant for 7 years to ronn from 
third day of May, 1686, Richard 
Moore, brickmaker, and Mary his 
wife, and Mary his daughter, and John 
Moore his son, Sarah Searle, his ser- 
vant for 4 years to ronne from the 3rd 
day of May, 1686, Henry Guest, 
Sawyer, and Mary his wife, and Hen- 
ry, his son. 

The first Court of the new county of 
Chester, met Yah. 14, 1683, at Ches- 
ter, and adjourned to the 27th of the 
same month. John Simcock, Presi- 
dent ; Thomas Brasy, William Clayton, 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



71 



Robert Wade and John ^tztx, Justices. 
Thomas Usher, Sheriff, and Thomas 
Revell, Clerk. William Rawson, 
James Browne, Jeremiah Collett, Wm. 
Hewes, Walter Martin, Nathaniel 
Evans, Joshua Hastings, Wm. Wood- 
manson, Thos. Colborne, Albert Hen- 
drickson, Joseph Richards and Edward 
Carter, Jurors. 

In addition to the regular Court, a 
tribunal was established called the 
"Fence Makers,'" consisting of three 
persons, who held their appointment 
from the Court. The duties of these 
Peace Makers seem to have been some- 
what analogous to those of Arbitrators 
at the present day, except that they 
were appointed without reference to 
any particular case. They held regu- 
lar meetings, and decided whatever 
matters were referred to them. It is 
to be regretted that the system has 
not been continued, the relief to the 
Courts in our large cities would be very 
grateful to our over-worked judges. 

At a Court held June 27, 1683, it 
was ' ' ordered that the Peace Makers 
are to meet the first Fourth-day of every 
month ;" and at a Court held Aug. 5, 
1684, the Peace Makers made the fol- 
lowing award on a reference ; " Ac- 
cording to the order of the Court to 
us directed, we have seriously consid- 
ered the premises between the Plain- 
tife, Richard Crosby, and the Defend- 
ant, George Andrews, Whereupon we, 
the Peace Makers, do give, grant, judge 
and allow, that the said Defendant, 
George Andrews, hisheirsand assignes, 
shall pay or cause to be paid unto the 
said Plaintife, Richard Crosby, or his 
assignes, the full and just sum of Eigh- 
teen pounds, of Lawfull money of this 
Province, att or upon the 20th day of 
this instant, December, att the now 
dwelling house of James Saunderlaine, 



att Chester : halfe of which said eigh- 
teen, the said Defendant George An- 
drews or his assignes is to pay the 
said Plaintife Richard Crosby or his 
Assignes, as aforesaid in ready money, 
the other halfe as aforesaid, in good 
and merchantable wheat or rye att the 
common market price of this river. To 
which conclusion wee the Peace Makers 
for this County of Chester, have sett 
our hands att the aforesaid Chester, 
the 17th of the loth moneth, 1683. 
John Hastins, 
John Harding. 

At a Court held in June, 1687, 
Caleb Pusie, Randall Vernon and Wal- 
ter Fawcett, were elected Peace Makers 
of the county, for the ensuing year. 

At a Court held in 1684, it was or- 
dered that the Grand Jury have power 
to examine all weights and measures, 
and that they be sealed according to 
the law in that case provided. 

Deeds were then acknowledged in 
open Court, and a minute made thereof 
on the records. This practice con- 
tinued for many years, and in the 
course of time became a considerable 
item of business ; no doubt there was 
a law requiring this to be done. Here 
are some specimens of such entries : — 

John Hendrickson came into Court 
and gave possession to Charles John- 
son, of a parcel of meadow, by deliv- 
ering his deed in Open Court. 

Arnoldus Lagrange, past over a deed 
in open Court unto Christopher Taylor, 
for the Island commonly known by 
the name of Mattinnacotick, bearing 
date the 2d day of the 12th month, 
1685. 

Henry Reynolds past a mortgage of 
his House and lot att Chichester to 
James Sanderlaine for j[^2(), dated the 
6th of the 2d month, 1685. 

John Hastings, attorney for John 



72 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



March, past over a Deed to Thomas 
Marten, his Heirs and Assigns, dated 
the ist day of the ist month, 1685, 
for seventy acres of land lying near 
Chester Creek. 



IX. 

The earliest appointment of Super- 
visors or overseers of Roads, was made 
Oct. 13, 1680. Upland Record: — 
"•Whereas the Court finds it necessary 
that some fitt persons be appointed as 
Overseers of y* highwayes and roads ; 
and as Overseers and Viewers of all 
fences throughout this county : It is 
therefore resolved that Mr. John Cock 
& Lasse Dalboe were this day appoint- 
ed & sworn overseers & viewers of y" 
highwayes and roads & fences within 
this county for one year, or till others 
bee appointed in their s** places." 

The Court under Penn's government 
continued to make these appointments 
until 1692, when the power was dele- 
gated to the townships ; returns to be 
made to the Court from time to time 
of those appointed Supervisors and 
fence-viewers. 

On the 3d of the 12th mo., 1684, 
Thomas Nossiter was presented by the 
Grand Jury, " for falling of marked 
trees, and blocking up the highway 
laid out by them, by a former order 
of the Court." 

The Grand Jury continued to lay 
out the Roads and Highways until 
1699, when the practice was changed, 
and they. were thereafter laid out by 
si.x persons apjjointed by the Court. 
The first appointment of such a Jury, 
was upon Ralph Fishbourne's petition, 
made at October Court, 1699. 

The first report of a Jury of View, 
especially apjwinted by the Court, lay- 
ing out a new njad, was made in Dec. 



1700. The form of return was the 
same as that used by the Grand Jury 
previously. The Jury who made this 
return, were John Worrell, Randall 
Malin, William Edwards, George 
Smedley, Robert Pennell and Daniel 
Hooi)es ; familiar names at the present 
day in Delaware and Chester Counties. 

In 1702, the Court Ordered that 
all Cart Roads laid out by order of the 
Court, shall be fifty feet broad, as the 
two Roads laid out from Upper and 
Nether Providence to Darby, and 
' Caleb's Mills,' and all others. The 
Caleb's mill here referred to, was 
doubtless the mill of Caleb Pusey, on 
Chester Creek, at the present Upland 
or Crozier's. 

Previous to the year 1 707, all bridges 
were erected and maintained at the 
expense of the townships. In that 
year, the Court made the following 
order, directing that certain bridges 
should be a charge upon the county. 
This is the first instance on record of 
a county Bridge : 

"Feb. 25, 1707, upon the petition 
of the inhabitants of the town and 
county of Chester, and consented to, 
and agreed to be allowed by the Grand 
Inquest of this county, representing that 
the bridge at Chester over the Creek, 
and one bridge built over Ridley creek, 
and also a bridge to be built at Crum 
creek, at the Rock, in the Queen's 
Road ; and that all roads leading to 
and from the same, shall be erected, 
repaired and maintained at the publick 
charge of the County of Chester; and 
it is by the Court considered, that the 
same shall be and remain upon the 
County's charge for ever hereafter." 

The first report of a Jury assessing 
road damages, was made to the Court 
Nov. 25, 1707, as follows: "In pur- 
suance to an Order of Court to us, 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



73 



dated the 26th day of Aug., 1707, to 
adjude the vahie of so much of Joseph 
Richards' s manured land as is laid out 
for a road leading from Chester to As- 
ton ; haveing viewed the said road, do 
judge the said land contained in the 
said road, to five pounds ; witness our 
hands y^ 26th day of November, 1707. 
Thomas Martin, Daniel Williamson, 
Randall Malin, Joseph Baker, Thomas 
Powell, Randall Vernon." Allowed by 
the Court, and ordered to be entered on 
the records, and the Court orders the 
Treasurer to pay said Joseph Richards 
the said five pounds. 

The first Council of the Province 
was selected by Gov. Markham, in 
1 681, in pursuance of authority from 
William Penn, {^Hazards' Amials, p. 
503). It consisted of nine persons, 
and held its sessions at Upland. We 
have no record of its proceeding, 
except the obligation taken by the 
members. It is given in the following 
language, in ist Penna. Archives, p. 
37 : Whereas, wee whose hands and 
seals are hereunto sett, are chosen 
by Wm. Markham, (Agent to William 
Penn, Esq., Proprietor of y*' Province 
of Pennsylvania), to be of the Coun- 
cill for y* s"^ Province, doe hereby bind 
ourselves by our hands & seales, that 
wee neither act or advise, nor consent 
unto anything that shall not be ac- 
cording to our consciences the best 
for y^ true and well government of the 
s'* Province, and likewise to keep se- 
cret all y^ votes and acts of us the s*^ 
Council unless such as by the General 
consent of us are to be Published. 
Dated at Vpland, y' third day of Au- 
gust, 1681 : 

Robert Wade, James Sandlenes, 

Morgan Drewt, Will Clayton, 

The mark W. W. of Otto Ernest Kock, 

Wm. Woodmanson, ye mark L. of 

William Marriner, Lacy Cock. 
Thos. ffairman. 



In the early days of the Province, 
elections were sometimes conducted 
by the use of white and black beans — 
those in favor of a particular person 
casting a white bean, and those oppos- 
ed to him a black bean. A dissension 
in the Provincial Council in 1689, 
with reference to the validity of the 
election of a member, shows that this 
mode of balloting was in use in Ches- 
ter County. In the course of discus- 
sion, Griffith Jones, a member of the 
Council, observed, " That it is in use 
at Upland, and in all the lower coun- 
ties, by white and black beans put into 
a hat, which is a balloting in this sense, 
and cannot be denied by the Charter 
when it is demanded." 

In 1691, the Council ordered, "that 
each county shall henceforward elect, or 
give their suffrages according to Char- 
ter, viz., by y* ballot." 

The Provincial Court which usually 
held its sessions at Philadelphia, occa- 
sionally met at Chester. The follow- 
ing is a record of its proceedings at a 
session held in 1698: "At a Pro- 
vincial Court, held at Chester, for 
the County of Chester, the 3d day 
of the 8th month, Annoq. Domi. 
1698, Joseph Growden, Cornelius 
Emptson, Judges ; Andrew Job, She- 
riff : John Childe, Clarke. After 
Proclamation made and silence com- 
manded in his Majesties name, the 
Justices of the Court were called, and 
they appeared and gave their attend- 
ance, and the Judge's commission was 
read." 

Thomas Thomas, appealant, vs. Mor- 
gan Jones. "This cause was called. 
John Moore appeared for the Appeal- 
ant, and David Lloyd for the Appeallee. 
After some debate about the cause by 
the two attorneys before the Judges, 
they hearing the same debated by both 



74 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



parties, the Judgt's.{)nlcrc(l that ifllicy 
could agree to put the same to arbitra- 
tion, they might end it, or otherwise 
they ordered it to be continued till the 
next Provincial Court in law, to be 
held for the said county of Chester." 

Another session of the Provincial 
Court was held at Chester, on the i8th 
of 2d mo., 1699. The Judges present 
were Edward Shippen, Cornelius 
B^MPTSON and William Biles. John 
Moore and David Lloyd, appeared as 
attorneys. 

At a session held at Clicstcrm 1705, 
it is entitled "The Supreme or Pro- 
vincial Court." The Judges then in 
commission were John Guest, Jasper 
Yates, Sam'l Finney, Joseph Grow- 
DON, and William Trent. Subse- 
quent sessions of this Court were also 
held at Chester. 

There was also a Court of Petty 
Sessions occasionally held by some of 
the Justices. Its sessions were usually 
held at one of the public houses. The 
following is a copy of the record of such 
a Court. " At a Petty Sessions held at 
Chester, the 26th day of Dec, 1693, 
at the house of Peter Baynton. Justices 
present — Jeremiah Collett, Thomas 
Wei thers, Jonathan Hayes and Thomas 
Smith ; and having seriously consid- 
ered of the presentment of the Grand 
Inquest for the building of the Prison, 
and it being that which the law made 
by the representatives of the county 
and Province requires to be done, did 
appoint the 8th day of January, at the 
house of John Hodgskins(Hoskins),at 
Chester, where they met according to 
appointment, and there did make an 
assessment for the Raiseing of thesum of 
;^i5o for defraying the charges, at the 
true value of two pence per pound upon 
the real and personal estates of all the 
inhabitants of this county — all free- 



men, six shillings per head — and there 
did at the house of John Hodgskins, 
constitute and appoint and authorize 
Joseph Wood, High Sheriff of the 
County, to be the Collector of said 
levy, to be gathered by the ist day of 
3rd month next. Counsellor Fore- 
man being then present with the ffore- 
named Justices. ' ' 

In addition to its other duties the 
Court of Quarter Sessions, exercised 
the province of binding out children 
to suitable persons, and looking after 
their interests. The following entries 
show the manner in which this duty 
was performed : 

Francis Chadsey, brought a boy 
whose name is Alexander Steward, 
who was ajudged to sarve eight years 
from the 14th day of September last 
past, if he be taught to reade and right, 
or else to sarve but seven years ; also, 
he had a sarvant maide whose name is 
Ann Bean who was ajudged to sarve 
five years from this Court, to said 
Francis or assigns. 

Henry Nayl, brought a servant boy 
to the Court whose name was Alexan- 
der Stewart, whose time said Nayl had 
bought of Francis Chadsey, and said 
boy consents and agrees to serve said 
Henry Nayl one year and a quarter 
above his time of record, if Henry 
Nayl teach him the trade of Shoe- 
maker ; if not the said Nayl to allow 
the said boy satisfaction for the over- 
plus time as the Court shall allow. 

Elinor Clayton, an orphan of the 
age of 14 years, was ordered by the 
Court to serve Daniel Hoopes for the 
term of seven years, on condition that 
he should teach her to read, knit and 
sew, and pay ;£\2 according to the 
order of the Court. 

Richard Clayton, an orjjhan boy, 
is ordered to serve Edward Danger for 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



75 



the term of nine years, in considera- 
tion the said Edward teach or cause to 
be taught the said Richard the trade 
of a Cooper, and find and allow him 
sufficient meat and drink, lodging and 
apparel during said term, also to teach 
him to read and write, and pay ;^i4 
5^-. to the order of the Court. 

Andrew Job complained to the 
Court, that an orphan girl living at 
Isaac Few's ought to be taken care of 
by the Court. Ordered that Isaac 
Few be cited to the next Orphans' 
Court to give an account of said girl 
and her estate. 

The Court also aided widowed moth- 
ers in obtaining suitable places for their 
children, when they were desirous of 
binding them out. 

In 1698 Sarah MacDaniel having 
some children to place out, she came 
into Court and desired the assistance 
of said Court for placing out of the 
said children. She had a son whose 
name was Alexander, and by the ap- 
probation of the Court placed him 
with John Howell till he was of the 
age of twenty-two years, he then being 
one and a half years old, and " he the 
said John Howel or assigns, is to teach 
or cause to be taught the said Alex- 
ander to read and write, or else to 
allow the boy one year of his said 
time." 

Also the said Sarah MacDaniel does 
by the approbation of the Court, place 
out a girl whose name is Elinor Mac- 
Daniel unto David Phillips till she 
comes of the age of twenty-one years, 
she being now three years old, and the 
said David Phillips is to teach or cause 
to be taught the said girl to read and 
write, or else to allow her one year of 
her time. 

Nicholas Newlin, brought a boy 

whose name is William MacDaniel, 
11 



who was adjudged to be sixteen years 
of age, and to serve five years and a 
half if taught to read and write, or 
else to serve but five years. 

Mrs. MacDaniel, with the assistance 
of the Court, seems to have got rid of 
all her children. One is tempted to 
imagine that she was about to marry 
again some man who objected to a 
ready-made family. 

In regard to the MacDaniels, it may 
be observed that then as now, the . 
name was a corruption of McDonald, 
the children mentioned being those of 
Owen McDonald. 

Servants who run away from their 
masters, or committed some offence, 
were frequently brought before the 
Court and required to serve a length 
of time beyond that called for by the 
original binding. The following en- 
tries are given as examples of such 
orders, and are copied from the min- 
utes of the Court : 

A petition was read from John 
Worrall, concerning a servant boy, 
named William Gill, that had run 
away several times ; the Court order- 
ed that the said William Gill shall 
serve his said master, John Worrall, 
according to law 240 days. 

David Lewis, brought a servant 
woman named Euphiam Cattell to the 
Court, to have judgment for what loss 
and trouble he hath been about her, 
and the Court orders that she shall 
serve said David Lewis, one whole 
year after the expiration of her time 
that she was to serve before. 

Thomas Smith brought his servant 
boy, whose name is Alexander Mick- 
ence, who having run away from his 
master, and for several pther misde- 
meanors, and for what charges he put 
his master to, is ordered to serve the 
said master or his assigns eight months 



76 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



after the cxjiiration of liis lime, if he 
behave himself well, ur else to serve 
ten 7nonths. 

At the expiration of their term of 
service, servants were entitled to a cer- 
tain allowance of clothing and other 
articles, which were called the '■'■cus- 
tom of the country,'" complaints by ser- 
vants that this custom was denied them 
or inadequately furnished, were of fre- 
quent occurrence. 

In 1693, it is recorded, that John 
Neales exhibited a petition to this 
Court for the custom of the coujitry. 
He having served his time faithfully, 
and his indentures being brought into 
Court, expresses the custom of the coun- 
try to be paid to him, the Court's order 
is that his master, Robert Taylor, shall 
pay him the said custom. 

In another case, where a servant 
complained that he had served out his 
time, and had been turned off " with- 
out clothes fitting a servant to have," 
the Court ordered his master to pay 
him a hat, coat, waistcoat, breeches, 
drawers, stockings and shoes, all new, 
and also ten bushels of wheat or four- 
teen bushels of corn, two hoes and one 
axe. 

In 1684, Margaret Person complain- 
ed against her master, John Colbert, 
for ill usage and beating her contrary 
to law. Ordered that she be disposed 
of for seven pounds. Ordered that 
Randolph Vernon and Robert Eyre, 
clerk, doe look out for a convenient 
master for said Margaret Person, that 
will lay down the seven pounds or- 
dered to free her from her master, 
John Colbert. 

At a Court held in the same year 
it is recorded that " Richard Crosby 
made his usuall complaint, that he 
could not get his execution served on 
the estate of George Andrews. Or- 



dered that the Sheriff levy the execu- 
tion in the hands of Henry Renolds." 
At a Court held in 1685, Robert 
Cloud had a pass granted him to de- 
part this Province, dated the 26th of 
9th mo., 1685, — his brother, William 
Cloud, of Concord, being his security 
to save the Country harmless. 

The Coroner in those early days was 
known as the "■ Croiuner,''' and there 
is an entry on the Court records in 
1685, upon the petition of Richard 
Kenala, the Crowner, it was ordered 
that forthwith execution be granted 
against Henry Renolds for the Crown- 
er's fees, charges of inquests, and tak- 
ing up the body of the said Renolds' 
maid, with all other charges whatso- 
ever thereunto belonging, and of the 
Sheriff's return of having levied on 
Renolds' oxe, and the said Henry 
Renolds came into Court and made 
full satisfaction for said oxe, where- 
upon the Court ordered him his oxe 
again. 

For crimes and misdemeanors of the 
higher grades the county courts bound 
over to, and were tried before the Pro- 
vincial Court, which usually sat at 
Philadelphia, and was held by the 
Governor and Council. The follow- 
ing will show the course of procedure 
in such cases, viz. : — At a Court held 
the 3rd day of the ist week in the ist 
month, 1685, (March 1685-6,) it was 
" Ordered that the Sheriff do take into 
his custody the body of David Lewis, 
upon suspition of Treason, as also the 
body of Robert Cloud for concealing 
the same, for that he the said Robert 
Cloud being attested before the Court, 
declared that upon the 3d day of the 
week before Christmas last, att the house 
of George Foreman, the said David 
did declare in his hearing that he was 
accused of being concerned with the 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



77 



Duke of Monmouth in the west Coun- 
try," in England. 

Robert Dyer became security that 
his servant, the said David Lewis, shall 
appear at the next Provincial Court, 
held at Philadelphia, the loth day of 
the 2d month, 1686, to answer the 
premises. William Cloud became se- 
curity for his son, Robert Cloud, that 
he shall appear at the said Provincial 
Court to answer for concealing the 
same. 

In March, 1685-6, the Grand Jury 
presented a bill against William Taylor, 
Samuel Rowland and Thomas Butter- 
field for maliciously and tumultuous- 
ly assaulting and presenting a gunn 
against the body of John Brisstoll. 
George Foreman Became security that 
his man, Sam'l Rowland, shall appear 
at the Provincial Court held at Phil- 
adelphia, there to answer the pre- 
mises. 

In the same year, "James Saunder- 
laine was presented by the Grand Jury 
for keeping an ordinary (a house of 
entertainment for travellers) without 
lycense, as also for keeping disorders in 
his house upon the first day of the 
week, to which he made his appear- 
ance. Witness, Randall Vernon. The 
Court dispenses with his keeping an 
Ordinary until the Provincial Council 
shall sit, and in respect to his disorder, 
upon his promise that it shall be so no 
more, it is remitted." He does not, 
however, seem to have kept his promise 
to the Court, for the next year he "was 
fined five shillings for suffering Robert 
Sheppard to be drunk in his house." 

In 1684, an Act of Assembly was 
passed, providing that monthly and 
quarterly sessions be held in every 
county by the respective Justices, and 
that each Quarter Sessions be as well 
a Court of Equity as Law, concerning 



any Judgment given in cases of law, 
capable of trial in the respective 
County Sessions and Courts. 

The first notice on our County Court 
records of a Court of Equity, is in 
the appeals taken in two cases tried 
before the Common Pleas, on the third 
day, of the first week, of the tenth 
month, 1686, one (the first) case was 
that of Jeremy Collet, Plff., Henry 
Renolds, Deft. , an action in case. The 
jury find for the defendant two pence 
damages upon account of the Canow 
(Canoe), and that he shall pay to the 
plaintiff x^s. 2[d. upon balance of his 
account, and that the plaintiff pay the 
costs of suit. Hereupon judgment is 
given, upon which the plaintiff makes 
his appeal to the next Cm/rf of Equity 
held for this county. 

The first " Court of Equity" was 
held two days after the above trial, 
and was composed — under the title' of 
Commissioners — of the same Justices 
who held the County Courts. The 
appeal taken in the above and other 
cases, were considered and decided. 
The following is a copy of the pro- 
ceedings in above case. At a Court 
OF Equity held at Chester, the 5 th 
day of the first week of the loth mo., 
1686. Commissioners present, — John 
Blunston, John Simcock, George Ma- 
ris, Bartholomew Coppock, Samuel 
Levis, Robert Wade and Robert Pyle. 
Clerk, Robert Eyre. 

Jeremy Collett of this county, pre- 
ferred a bill to this Court, requiring a 
remedy against the verdict of jury and 
judgment of Court, in a case depend- 
ing between himself and Henry Ren- 
olds of same county, at the last Court 
of Common Pleas held for the county 
of Chester, the third and fourth days 
of the present week ; upon which it 
was decreed that Henry Renolds should 



78 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



\K\\ one-half of the charges of Court 
and costs of suit. 

The first Orphans' Court under that 
distinctive title, was held in the year 
1687. I copy the proceedings. 

At an Orphans' Court held at Ches- 
ter, the 3d day of the first week of the 
8th mo., 1687. 

"Justices, — John Kristow, Presi- 
dent; John Symcocke, John Blunstone, 
Ceorge Maris, Bartholomew Coj^pocke 
and Edward Beasar. Sheriff, Joshua 
Firne. Clerh, Robert Eyre. 

"Richard Few appearing, was or- 
dered to bring an account to the next 
Orphans' Court, held the 3d day in 
the first week of the ist mo. next, of 
the estate, usage and employment of 
his grand-daughter, Susannah Few." 

Margaret Smith, petitioned the 
Court against Richard Few, for his 
breach of promise made to her rela- 
tions in England ; ordered, that Rich- 
ard Few bring in his account of charges 
against Margaret Smith, the next 
Court of Sesion. The Court adjourn- 
ed until the 3d day in the first week 
of the ist mo. next. 

Previous to the year 1700, there was 
a law against any strangers travelling 
without Passes, and obliging all inn- 
keepers to give notice to some magis- 
trate, of strangers coming to lodge at 
their houses, and against ferrymen and 
boatmen carrying strangers, unless they 
had a testimonial of good conduct from 
a magistrate. Ferrymen had to enter 
bonds to perform their duty in this 
respect. 

As a punishment for crimes, stand- 
ing in the pillory, became more frequent 
year after year. At November Court, 
1724, a man was sentenced to be sold 
for three years, to serve after the man- 
ner of a servant, "for payment of his 
gaol fees." Criminals frequently pe- 



I titioned the Court for the privilege of 
I being sold to service, instead of being 
imprisoned for a term of years ; from 
which, Dr. Smith infers, " that the 
jails of that day, did not afford such 
comfortable quarters to malefactors as 
prisons of a modern date." 

X. 

In the year 1682, the Society of 
Friends jnirchased and enclosed a suit- 
able lot for a burial place. It is now 
surrounded by a substantial stone wall, 
and is situated on the west side of 
Edgmont Avenue, between Sixth and 
Seventh Streets. The earliest death 
entered on the records of Chester 
Monthly Meeting, was on the 23d of 
the loth mo., 1682; this was a short 
time before the Meeting had selected 
a place for burial at Chester. On the 
ist of nth mo., 1682, the Monthly 
Meeting appointed a committee to see 
a piece of ground for a burial place at 
Chester, and on the 5 th of the 9th 
mo., 1683, John Hastings and Thomas 
Vernon were appointed to "fence the 
burial ground as soon as may." See 
Painte)-'' s Reminiscences of Delaware 
County, MS., in the Historical So- 
ciety. 

In 1706, by direction of the Quar- 
terly Meeting of Friends, action was 
taken by the Monthly Meetings in re- 
gard to the erection of grave-stones in 
their burial places. The committee 
appointed by the Chester Monthly 
Meeting stated, that they found but 
"six small stones to the graves." It 
was " the sense of the Meeting," that 
they ' ' be sunk or taken away. ' ' Near- 
ly one-third of the graves in the old 
Friends' grave yard there, have now 
tombstones, or head and foot stones to 
them. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



79 



I believe that now Friends make 
no objection to the erection of sim- 
ple memorial head and foot stones 
over graves of deceased members 
of the Society in their burial places, 
although one stone seems to me 
to be enough, and that laid flat 
upon the grave, as Moravians do in 
their grave-yards. By them each 
grave is marked by a small marble 
slab, a foot and a half wide and two 
feet long, laid flat upon a rectangular 
piece of ground raised about a foot 
above the level of the original sod, 
emblematic that death levels all, and 
that all are alike ; upon each stone is 
engraved the name, age and birth- 
place of the one who lies beneath. 
Sometimes a quotation from the Scrip- 
tures, or the verse of a hymn is added, 
and loving hands often plant flowers 
on the graves of the dear ones who 
have "gone home." 

In the Jordan burial ground, in 
England, in which the remains of 
William Penn and his family are in- 
terred, it will be seen that head stones 
mark not only the grave of Penn, but 
those of his two wives, his children, 
his relatives, and his intimate asso- 
ciates and his fellow-laborers. The 
Friends have acted wisely in placing 
those memorial stones in the Chalfont 
burial ground. A simple name and 
date can never be called ostentation, 
and history and posterity demand that 
the burial place of a great man should 
be marked out ; the living owe some- 
thing to their deserving dead ; a little 
stone to recall them to memory once 
and awhile, and to mark the spot where 
their remains repose, is but just and 
proper. But the fashion of wearing 
black for mourning, is a custom that 
ought to be abolished ; poor people 
will follow the example of their richer 



neighbors, and funeral displays are 
made every day by families who are 
not able to bear the expense, and 
enough is often spent in mourning 
dresses, carriages, plumed hearses, and 
a grand funeral dinner, that would 
support the family of the dead one for 
a year or more. Friends and Mora- 
vians very sensibly do not wear mourn- 
ing of black. We can mourn our dead 
in our hearts, without hanging out a 
sign to tell our neighbors of our loss. 

The Gaskills, of Rolfe's Hold, 
Bucks, England, and of Ireland and 
Pennsylvania, (the latter family now 
called Penn-Gaskill,) are descendants 
of William Penn by his first wife, 
Gulielma Springett. Penn left his vast 
Pennsylvania estates to the children of 
his second wife, Hannah Callowhill. 
This may seem strange ; but at his 
death in 1718, the property was worth 
little more than ;^5oo a year. 

One of Penn's descendants is now, 
or was very lately, a resident of Ches- 
ter — Mary, the daughter of the late 
Peter Penn-Gaskill, of Philadelphia. 
She married Dr. Isaac T. Coates. Her 
brother, the present Peter Penn-Gas- 
kill, inherited the Irish estates of the 
family, and resides in Ireland. Mrs. 
Coates had four sisters, all now de- 
ceased, two of whom I knew — Guli- 
elma, a beautiful girl, who died young, 
and Elizabeth, a very charming wo- 
man, who married a Southern gentle- 
man. The youngest married Wash- 
ington Irving, a Paymaster in the U. 
S. Navy. She is now dead. The 
other, Emily, married Dr. John Paul 
Quinn, a Surgeon in the U- S. Navy, 
now both deceased. I believe they 
left a son living. Lieut. Col. Peter 
P. G. Hall, Paymaster, U. S. Army, 
is also a descendant of Penn. 

The Swedes had a burial place at 



80 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



Chester, previous to that laid out by 
the Society of Friends in 1683. It 
will not do to say there was no such 
place; it was an absolute necessity for 
forty years before that date. Henry 
Graham Ashmead, Esquire, a gentle- 
man of Chester, of antiquarian tastes, 
and an excellent writer, states that — 

" In the will of Grace Lloyd, dated the 6th 
of the 4th mo., 1760, is the following; Ijeqiiest: 
' And it is my mind and will, and 1 do hereby 
order and direct that the pcicc of burying 
groiiud, being forty feet, fronting Edgmont 
Road, in said Borough, thence seventy feet 
back, and forty feet in breadth, shall at all 
times hereafter, forever, he used for and as a 
huryiitg place for negroes, that is to say, for 
such as shall have belonged to my late hus- 
band or myself, and such as shall descend 
from them, and such as do or hereafter may 
belong to Friends, or Chester Meeting, and 
such as in their life-time desire to be Ijuried 
there, but not for any that are executed, or 
lay violent hands upon themselves, and that 
none be buried there without the consent of 
the Overseers of Friends' Meeting in Ches- 
ter.' 

" Where was this grave-yard for colored 
people situate? Certainly not within the in- 
closure of the old Friends' burial place, ad- 
joining General Beale's residence, for that 
was laid out in 1683, and Mrs. Lloyd in 
another part of her will appropriates a certain 
sum (jf money to rail in the old Friends' grave- 
yard, which is sufficient proof that the two 
places were separate and distinct. I have 
asked several of our oldest people about this 
matter, but they have no recollection of the 
site of the old colored ctvc\^\.QT)' . 

" Grace Lloyd was the wife of David Lloyd, 
to whom she was married in 1686. Her 
maiden name was (irowden. Her death oc- 
curred in 1760. She certainly reached an 
advanced age, for from the date of her mar- 
riage to that of her death, there is an interval 
of seventy-four years; supposing that she was 
sixteen years of age at her wedding, she must 
have l>een 90 years of age when she died. 
Her husband, David Lloyd, was an important 
personage in Colonial times. Watson in his 
Annals, says he had ]>een 'once a captain in 
Cn.niwcirs army, and sought his jieace by 



coming to this country.' This is evidently a 
mistake. He died in 1 731, aged 75 years, 
which would make his birth as having occur- 
red in 1656. Cromwell died Sept. 3, 1658, 
and it is impossible that an infant two years of 
age could have been an officer in the army of 
the great Protector." 

This erroneous statement is made 
again in the Logati Papers, vol. i. p. 
155, in a note. 

The old burying ground for ne- 
groes, referred to above, was situate 
on -'Edgmont Great Road," (some- 
times called the Middletown Road,) 
just above or to the northward of where 
the "Providence Street Road" in- 
tersects the former. The place has 
not been used as a burial ground 
for a long period of time, and its ex- 
istence was entirely forgotten by the 
present inhabitants. The owner of 
the adjoining property came into pos- 
session by the decay of the fences 
around the burial ground. No doubt, 
as it was not his duty to keep them in 
repair, or his interest to preserve them 
intact, I take it that the possession of 
the ground thus acquired, for twenty- 
one years, is the adverse possession 
required by law. The Overseers of 
Friends' Meeting at Chester, were cer- 
tainly to blame for not keeping posses- 
sion of this burial lot ; still it may be, 
that neither the Society nor the Over- 
seers, ever considered the lot as being 
placed in their charge by the terms of 
Mrs. Lloyd's will ; at all events, this 
property, which was formerly partially 
on the two roads mentioned, hidden 
from view by a tall, thick set thorn- 
hedge, is now covered by dwellings. 
At the time of the erection of the 
buildings, coffins and human bones 
were uncovered in digging the cellars, 
but nobody could account for their 
presence in that locality, the fact of 
its having been a grave-yard not being 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



81 



generally known, and that it was the 
site of the ''piece of burying groiimV 
referred to in Mrs. Lloyd's will, has 
only lately been brought to light by 
the inquiry of Mr. Ashmead, which 
appeared in the Delaware County Re- 
publican, and from information receiv- 
ed from an aged negro. 

I do not use the word negro in an 
offensive sense, but as the proper de- 
signation of all people, vaguely called 
"Colored people." The first black 
men, on their introduction to this 
country as slaves, were brought here 
from Negroland, in Africa. Look 
on the riiap, and the country of that 
nation of black people will be seen 
thus designated, and as all African 
slaves were black, they all were natur- 
ally called negroes. And as we say, 
he is an Irishman, an Englishman, or 
a Frenchman, I say he is a negro, just 
as I would say he is an Indian, a Ma- 
lay, or a Swede, &c. Nigritta, or 
Negroland, covers an immense extent* 
of land in Africa, bounded on the 
north by the desert of Zahara, east by 
Darfoor, south by Guinea, and west 
by Senegambia. The river Niger, 
traverses the central part of this coun- 
try, and on the coast of Africa we find 
Cape Negro. See Goodrich's Univer- 
sal Geography, pp. 796 to 809, and the 
term which the negro deems one of 
reproach, he should be proud of, as 
designating the native country of his 
race. 

On the last page of the book of 
" Registry of Arrivals in Philadelphia 
in 1682-86," will be found the fol- 
lowing entry : — " David Lloyd, borne 
in the yeare 1656 in y" Parish of Man- 
avan, in y* county of Montgomery, in 
North Wales. Sarah Lloyd, his wife, 
borne in y^ year 1667, at Cirensister, 
in Glocester Shire, England." And 



they are put down as having come over 
to America, "In the Amity, and as 
having arrived the 15th of the 5th 
mo., 1686." Dr. Smith, pp. 480-'!, 
says "David Lloyd, a Welshman, and 
one of the most eminent of the early 
settlers of Pennsylvania, arrived at 
Philadeli^hia in 1686, and at first set- 
tled in that city, where he married 
Grace Growden, a most estimable 
lady." He was a lawyer, and Wil- 
liam Penn made him Attorney Gen- 
eral, April 24, 1686. He must have 
been appointed before leaving Eng- 
land. He was a member of the Pro- 
vincial Assembly, and its Speaker, and 
in 1 718, he was appointed Chief Jus- 
tice of the Supreme Provincial Court, 
which position he held until his death. 
He purchased a large tract of land at 
Chester, and became possessed of the 
Swedish Church lands at Chester, or 
the "Green," as it was called, by 
means not then considered very hon- 
orable. He erected the fine old man- 
sion now known as " Commodore 
Porter's House," and called, rather 
singularly before Porter lived there, 
"Green-Batik.'' He came to reside 
in Chester in 1700, and built the 
house at Green-Bank, in 1721. In 
the western gable on a rectangular 
stone, is engraven the 
following letters, mean- 
ing Lloyds, David and 



LL 
3D « O 

1721 



Grace : a very pretty idea, but one 
that was quite common at that time. 
He died A. D. 1731, aged 75 years. 
His widow survived him a number of 
years. Their remains were buried in 
Friends' burying ground at Chester. 
They left no children, though a son, 
Thomas, was born 11 mo. 27, 1697-8. 
It will be perceived from the entry 
I have quoted from the list of arrivals 
in the "Amity," the 15th of the 5th 



82 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



ino., i6,S6. that Sarah, the wife of 
David Lloyd, accompanied him to 
this country ; therefore Mr. Ashmead 
is mistaken in saying he married Grace 
Growden, in 1686; however, he mar- 
ried her afterwards, and she was his 
second wife. 

The will of David Lloyd of Ches- 
ter, gent., dated Mar. 29, 1724, proven 
April 15, 1 731, mentions neice Jane 
Smith, wife of Thomas Smith, now or 
late living in New England, to whose 
children he devises ;^5o. To .servant 
Jane Fen, ^^lo, and the remainder of 
estate to wife Grace. On his tomb- 
stone in Friends' grave-yard at Ches- 
ter, is inscribed, " Here lyeth the body 
of David Lloyd, who departed this 
life the 6th day of the 2d month, Anno 
Domini 1731, aged 78 years." 
S Jane Fenn, .above mentioned, be- 
came a noted minister among Friends, 
and married Joseph Hoskins in 1738, 
as already stated. Li a short auto- 
biography she says, " I entered into 
David Lloyd's family as an upper ser- 
vant, such as we call in England, 
housekeepers, having all the keys, 
plate, linen, &c., delivered to me. 
They had a great family, and every- 
thing passed through my hands ; and 
as they had reposed such a trust in 
me, it brought a weighty concern on 
my mind, that I might conduct aright 
and discharge my duty faithfully to 
my principals and their servants." 
In 1727 she went on a religious visit 
to England and Ireland from which 
she returned in the 12th month, 1730. 
She says, "soon after my arrival David 
Lloyd was taken ill with his last sick- 
ness, during which I thought it my 
duty to attend on him as usual. On 
the 6th of the Second month, 1731, 
he departed this life: and in him I 
lost a father and a sure friend. In all 



the journeys I went, whilst he li\ed, 
he cheerfully supplied me with the 
necessaries requisite. 

He was exemplary in his family, 
treating all about him with humanity, 
choosing rather to be loved than fear- 
ed. He was diligent in attending 
meetings for worship, and those of his 
servants w^ho inclined to go to meet- 
ings, he allowed to perform that neces- 
sary duty. 

After my arrival I did not live as an 
hired servant with David Lloyd, or 
with his widow, though I remained 
with her, at her request, till I married, 
which was in the year 1738." See 
Friends' Library, I, 468. 

The Monthly and First-day meet- 
ings of Friends, at Chester, were held 
in the Court House, i. e., the House 
of Defence, until the erection of the 
first meeting house, which was com- 
pleted in 1693, as has been herein be- 
fore shown. The lot upon which the 
first meeting house of Friends at Ches- 
ter was built, is thus described in the 
conveyance made on the ist of March, 
1688, by Urin Keen, in trust, to John 
Simcock, Tho. Brassey, John Bristow, 
Caleb Pusey, Randal Vernon, Thomas 
Vernon, Joshua Hastings, Mordecai 
Maddock, Thomas Martin, Richard 
Few, Walter Faucett and Edward Car- 
ter, "beginning at the corner of .the 
said Urin's lot or garden, by the Creek 
side, and so running sixty foot along 
and fronting the street towards the 
prison house, then down to the low 
water mark in Chester Creek, thence 
along the said creek sixty foot, thence 
to the place of beginning, * * * 
to the use and behoof of the said Ches- 
ter meeting of the people of God called 
Quakers, and their successors for- 
ever." 

"At a m"" meeting at Walter ffo- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



83 



cett's y^ s**" lo"" mo"' 1687 : ffeofees 
chosen, in trust, for y* purchased land 
& meeting house at Chester:" then 
follow the names above. 

The date of this minute is clear 
in the original, yet, being misplaced 
in the record, Thomas Chalkley, in 
transcribing made it 5th of 6th mo. 
1688. It would seem that there was 
a house on the property, when pur- 
chased, suitable for the use of a meet- 
ing. 

Mordecai Maddock, of Springfield, 
the last surviving trustee, conveyed 
this property, by direction of the 
meeting, to Edward Russell, of Ches- 
ter borough, April 2, 1736 ; and in 
the deed therefor it is said that the 
society had purchased a larger lot 
elsewhere, and erected a new meeting 
house thereon. 

The origin of the term Quaker, 
applied to Friends, is thus given : 

" George Fox bade the magistrates at Derby 
who sought to interfere with the worship of 
his followers, ' to tremble at the Word of God ;' 
•and from the use of the word ' tremble,' in this 
connection, the feerilTg crowd applied the epi- 
thet of ' Quakers,' to the newly-formed Society. 
The term has been applied to them ever since 
that time, by many who supposed that the 
'quaking' was a characteristic either of voice 
or of person among the ministers of the de- 
nomination." 

The first meeting of Friends was 
held at Robert Wade's house, in 1675. 
No meeting of record was held at 
Upland, until the year 1681. The 
following is the earliest minute, Dr. 
Smith says, at page 134: "The loth 
day of the nth mo., 1681, a Monthly 
Meeting of Friends, belonging to Mar- 
cus Hook and Chester, alias Upland, 
held at the house of Robert Wade." 

This extract is erroneous ; it should 
read, " The loth day of the nth mo., 

V2 



1 681, a Monthly Meeting of Friends, 
belonging to Marcus Hooke and Up- 
land, held then at Robert Wade's 
house. ' ' In the copy of the minutes 
made by Thomas Chalkley about 1 7 1 2, 
he introduces, in copying the above 
entry, the words "alias Chichester," 
after the words "Marcus Hook," and 
from this interpolation, others manag- 
ed to alter the extract again, by put- 
ting "alias Chester," after theVord 
"Upland," thinking, I suppose, that 
" alias Chichester" was an error, and 
these alterations led to the idea that 
Upland had been called Chester before 
Penn's arrival, which is not the fact. 
The lawful name of Marcus Hook is 
Chichester. 

The young people among Friends 
were very much restricted in the early 
times, in the matter of courtship and 
marriage. The meeting at Haverford 
in 1699, ordered, "that all young men 
among Friends make known their in- 
tentions to their parents or guardians, 
before they acquaint the young wo- 
man's relations, and to make it known 
to the woman's parents or guardians, 
before they speak to them, and if they 
do otherwise, that they shall condemn 
the same before they proceed any fur- 
ther." About the same restrictions 
prevailed generally in the Society. 
Dt\ Smith, p. 198. 

At the County Court, held in Feb., 
1685, the first sentence inflicting cor- 
poreal punishment Avas passed, and the 
sentence carried out at Marcus Hook. 
The prisoner's sentence for stealing 
money, was twelve stripes on his bear 
backe, well laid on, at the common 
Whipping Post at Chichester, on the 
4th instant, between the loth and nth 
hours in the morning. As there was 
a common Whipping Post at Chiches- 
ter or Marcus Hook when the sentence 



84 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



was j)assed. it is highly probable that 
the above sentence was not the first 
by any means. 

In the next caiie, the prisoner, con- 
victed for abusing and menacing the 
magistrates, was sentenced to receive 
twenty-one lashes at the public whip- 
ping post on his bare back, well laid 
on, and fourteen days imprisonment 
at hard labor in the House of Correc- 
tion. 

There are those who now think it is 
a pity that the Pillory, Tread-mill, 
Stocks, the Whipping Post and Hard 
Labor in a House of Correction are 
not still punishments for crimes and 
vagrancy. Our prisons are filled dur- 
ing the cold weather, by those who 
commit petty larcenies to get a home 
for winter, and our alms houses by 
vagrants who pass their time in idle- 
ness while in either place. If the 
small rogues got a lashing, and the 
loafers had to work, these useful insti- 
tutions would contain less able-bodied 
men and women. Our station houses 
are places of refuge at nights for drun- 
ken loafers, who if they had to stand 
in the pillory in the morning, or work 
half a day to pay for their lodging, 
would be very careful not to seek this 
public shelter. I have noticed, that 
since "no license" prevails in Dela- 
ware County, the tramps who used to 
infest its highways, have abandoned 
in disgust, its inhospitable roads. 

The following, which has the merit 
of being original, was written by 
Emanuel Price, a dealer in second- 
hand books, w^hose stand is in 5th Street 
below Locust, west side, Philadelphia, 
against the wall of the Burying ground 
of the "Free Quakers," sometimes 
called the "Fighting Quakers,'' be- 
cause they served in the Continental 
Army during the Revolution. Price 



is a well known contributor to the Press, 
under the ?wm-de-phime of " Peter Pep- 
percorn." It will please our friends, 
the law-makers of Delaware, where the 
pillory still stands, and the people be- 
lieve in the restraining virtue of 

TUK C.OOI) OLD WHIPI'INC-l'OST. 

" .'/ Post of vwrit, — not by honor wonT 
All hail to thee, old relic 

Of those grand and glorious times, 
When rogues and rascals, great and small, 

Were punished for their crimes, 
The terror of the base and vile, 

And all the thieving host. 
Reformer of dishonesty, 

The good old whipping post. 

The veiy best invention 

That ever was designed, 
To teach the whole light-fingered gentry, 

Their duty to mankind, 
Not one of all the numerous throng, 

Who thy acquaintance boast, 
Forgets the lesson learned at 

The good old whipping post. 

Thy mark upon society, 

May easily be traced; 
Although thy form by honest hands 

Has never been embraced, 
And few reluctant worshippers 

Of all thy hardened host, 
Embraces thee a second time, 

The good old whipping post. 

No preacher ever could convert 

A criminal like thee. 
Or leave such an impression 

On the back of knavery, 
To every rogue thy form appears, 

As grim as Banquo's ghost ! 
But honest men can smile upon 

The good old whipping post. 

The swindler may howl at thee, 

And gnash his teeth in rage ; 
Denounce thee as a relic of 

A by-gone barbarous age. 
When there's reform by being fed 

On milk and buttered toast ! 
We may give up, and throw aside, 

The good old whipping post. 

David Lloyd's house was at one time 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



85 



the residence of the late distinguished 
sailor, Commodore David Porter, of 
the United States Navy, and U. S. Min- 
ister to the Sublime Porte. He mar- 
ried Evelina the daughter of William 
Anderson, of Chester, a Major in the 
Revolutionary Army, whose remains re- 
pose in the old grave yard of St. Paul's 
church covered by a large handsome 
tombstone. Mrs. Evelina Porter, died 
Oct. I, 1871, in the 80th year of her 
age. She was a remarkably intelligent 
woman, and the mother of a large family 
of boys and girls. Her husband, Cap- 
tain David Porter, was a man of too 
much note in his day to render neces- 
sary here any attempt to sketch his 
eventful life. His writings are not so 
well known. In 1822, he issued in 
two volumes the "Journal of a Cruise 
made in the Pacific Ocean in the U. S. 
Frigate 'Essex,' in the years 181 2, '13, 
'14," of which I haveasecond edition, 
and in 1825, a volume containing "an 
exposition of the facts and circumstan- 
ces which justified the expedition to 
Foxardo''* appended to the "Minutes 
of the Proceedings of the Courts of En- 
quiry and Court Martial in relation to 
Captain David Porter." 

The Commodore, as he was called, 
although there was no such rank in his 
day in the Navy, but which was a title 
applied by courtesy to any officer who 
had commanded a squadron, after his 
resignation from our service, entered 
that of Mexico for some years and final- 
ly became the U. S. Minister to Tur- 

* Foxardo was a town on the island of Porto 
Rico. The Commodore landed men on the Is- 
land to obtain goods stolen by a gang of Pi- 
rates, and to obtain redress for an insult to one 
of his officers. For this violation of Spanish ter- 
ritory he was court martialed and sentenced to 
six years' suspension. Indignant at so heavy a 
sentence for what was, in fact, a justifiable and 
laudable action, he resigned his commission as 
a Captain in the Navy. 



key, and filled that position at the time 
of his death, which occurred late in the 
year 1 843. On Saturday evening, Jan. 
27, 1844, I visited the Walnut street 
theatre, at Philadelphia, to see the cele- 
brated tragedian Booth, as Pescara, 
in the Apostate : Florinda — Charlotte 
Cushman — after which there was erect- 
ed on the stage "an emblematic Tab- 
leaux to the memory of the gallant Por- 
ter." All the company appeared in 
the tableaux, and the "Star Spangled 
Banner' ' was .sung by Mr. Peter Rich- 
ings, Mr. Edward L. Davenport and 
Mrs. Mossop, " with additional verses, 
commemorative of the worth of the il- 
lustrious deceased, written expressly for 
this occasion by William R. Blake," 
after which was performed "The Nau- 
tical Drama of American Valor! or 
Yankee Tars on Hand. ' ' The present 
eminent American tragedian, Mr. Dav- 
enport, was then attached to the Wal- 
nut, and celebrated for his delineation 
of the peculiarities of the American 
sailor. 

The children of Commodore Porter 
were, viz : The late Commodore Wil- 
liam D. Porter, who was the eldest son, 
entered the U. S. Navy as a Midship- 
man, Jan. I, 1823. He commanded 
the iron-clad "Essex," on the Missis- 
sippi river, during the rebellion, and 
was injured at Fort Henry, by escaping 
steam — a cannon ball from the enemy 
having passed through the boiler of his 
vessel, he died finally from its effects. 
His father once commanded the U. S. 
Frigate "Essex,'' 32 guns, in which he 
captured His Brittanic Majesty's ship 
"Alert,'' and afterwards proceeded to 
the waters of the Southern Pacific, 
where he inflicted great losses upon the 
English commerce in that quarter, hav- 
ing captured 12 British ships, mostly 
whalers, and was finally drawn into an 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



action o(f the harlior of Valparaiso, by 
H. B. M. ships, "Phoebe," 36, and 
" Cherub," 20 guns. The Essex having 
parted her anchors in a gale and been 
driven out to sea, where the British ships 
awaited her, and she was captured after 
a desperate engagement, having 58 men 
killed and 66 wounded, and 31 missing ; 
probably drowned in attempting to 
swim ashore, or knocked overboard dur- 
ing the action. The entire loss was 155 
out of 255. Thousands of people on 
shore witnessed the fight, which was so 
close to shore that some of the Phoebe's 
shot struck the beach. The English vio- 
lated the neutrality of Chili. But there 
is scarcely a doubt that Capt. Hillgar 
of the Phoebe, although instructed not 
to fight the Essex single-handed, was 
ordered to take her if he could with- 
out regard to the neutrality of the 
South American ports. The action 
occurred on the 28th of Mar., 1814, 
and at its conclusion, "both the Es- 
sex and the Phoebe were in a sinking 
state." Vorter' a yoi^ ma/, 2 vol. 170. 
The two men, father and son, and 
their vessels of the same name, should 
not be confounded. 

The present Admiral David D. Por- 
ter, of the U. S. Navy, is the second 
son of the Commodore. He was ap- 
pointed a Midshipman, July 2, 1829. 
The late Theodoric Porter, was 
another son. He entered the regular 
army in 1838, and at the breaking out 
of the war with Mexico, he was a Lieu- 
tenant in the 7th regiment of U. S. 
Infantry, and was killed in a skirmish 
with Mexicans on April 18, 1846, dur- 
ing the advance of Gen. Taylor's army, 
previous to the battle of Palo Alto. He 
was a powerful man, and like all the Por- 
ters, devoid of the sensation we call 
fear. His brother, Hamilton Porter, 
a Lieutenant in the Navy, died in the 



service, Aug. 10, 1844, of yellow fever- 
Henry Ogden Porter, the youngest son 
of the old Commodore, entered the 
Navy as a Middy, Nov. 3, 1840, re- 
signed in 1847, ^"d was appointed a 
Lieutenant in the U. S. Revenue Ma- 
rine. During the late Rebellion he 
tendered his services to the Govern- 
ment, and was made an acting Lieu- 
tenant in the Navy. He was the ex- 
ecutive ofificer of the U. S. steamer 
" Hatteras," when she was captured by 
the Confederate cruiser "Alabama." 
He died May 22, 1872, in the 47th 
year of his age. 

Captain David Porter had two daugh- 
ters. The eldest, Evelina, married her 
cousin, Harris Heap, son of Samuel 
Heap, late U. S. Consul at Tunis ; she 
died recently at Chester. They had 
issue, David Porter, (now in the U. S. 
Army), Jannette, Emma and Charles. 
Mr. Heap is the present Consul Gen- 
eral of the U. S. at Tiaiis. The young- 
est daughter, called Imogene, married 
a Mr. Harris. 

That estimable gentleman and ac- 
complished sailor, the late Captain 
Henry Ogden, was a cousin of the Por- 
ter's, and so was my old friend Major 
David Porter Heap, late paymaster of 
the U. S. army, now deceased. He 
married Elizabeth, daughter of John 
C. Bowyer, ofLexington, Va., and left 
surviving him, his widow and Annie, 
Laurence, Mattie and Evelina. Major 
Heap was U. S. Consul at Constanti- 
nople, just previous to i860. The 
elder Mr. Heap, Samuel, now deceased, 
formerly U. S. Consul at Tunis, mar- 
ried Margaret Porter, a sister of the 
old Commodore. The names of their 
children were, Lawrence, Harris, David 
P., Angelina and Evelina. 

David Porter entered the U. S. Navy 
as a Midshipman, April 16, 1798, was 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



87 



made a Lieutenant, Oct. 8, 1 799 ; Com- 
mander, April 2, 1806; Captain, July 
2, 1812 ; resigned his commission, Aug. 
18, 1826. 

During the Revolution two brothers 
of the Porter family, David and Sam- 
uel, received commissions from the 
Continental Congress as Captains in 
the infant navy of our country, and 
commanded vessels employed for the 
purpose of cutting off supplies sent to 
the British army. During this service 
Capt. Samuel Porter was wounded, cap- 
tured, and became a prisoner on board 
the Jersey prison-ship. Capt. David 
Porter was also afterwards captured, 
and became a prisonor on board the 
same vessel with his brother. Samuel 
died and was buried by his brother while 
a prisoner. David effected his escape 
in a water-cask, aided by some of the 
British sailors with whom he had be- 
come on friendly terms. He served 
faithfully during the remainder of the 
war, after which he retired to live at 
Baltimore, and we hear of him as build- 
ing and erecting marine telegraphs on 
Federal Hill in that city. He also 
founded a society for the relief of 
captains and mates in the merchant 
service. He had two sons, David and 
John. They both entered the navy of 
the. United States, and were in the war 
of 1 81 2. John died a Commander, at 
Watertown, Massachusetts, and David 
was the well-known Commodore Por- 
ter of the U. S. Navy, and Minister to 
Constantinople. General Fitz John 
Porter is a son or grandson of Com- 
mander John Porter. 

Captain David Porter Heap, of the 
U. S. Corps of Engineers, at present 
engaged in rebuilding Forts Sumpter 
and Moultrie, in Charlston, S. C. Har- 
bor, is the eldest son of Evelina Por- 
ter and Harris Heap, late of Chester. 



An old cannon has lately been found 
in Chester and christened " 77^1? Old 
Morton Gun,'" concerning which Hen- 
ry G. Ashmead, Esq., in a communi- 
cation, says: — 

" In the report of the celebration of the Cen- 
tennial eve in this city, mention was made of 
an old gun in the line of the procession, which 
having been found lately in making an exca- 
vation in Quinn's stable-yard, was, therefore, 
supposed to be a Revolutionary relic. Of this 
old gun something is known, and that little 
goes to negative the idea of its Revolutionary 
history. Thirty odd years ago this cannon, 
which is a ship's gun, it will be remembered 
by many of our older citizens, was embedded 
as a step at the end of a walk which led from 
Green Bank Mansion to the river bank. When 
it was placed there, or by M'hom, is not known, 
but it is supposed that it was so located by the 
orders of Commodore David Porter^ after the 
war of 1812. At all events the old gun served 
the purpose of a step for many years, until the 
breaking out of the civil war, when it was taken 
from its resting place by Capt. Boone and 
others, and sent to a foundry to be examined. 
It was found to be sound and in excellent con- 
dition, after the rust of time had been removed. 
It was therefore mounted, and on Fourth of 
July, and during the public rejoicing that fol- 
lowed all the great victories of the Union for- 
ces in the field, that old gun was used to fire 
salutes in honor of those events. Often its 
deep toned voice was heard in Market Square, 
when Union men assembled to celebrate the 
glorious news from the annies. After the sur- 
render of Lee the cannon was placed in the 
rear of the Columbia House, and in time was 
forgotten by all. When or by whom it was 
dismounted is not known, but the old gun was 
thrown on the ground and the carriage removed. 
During the years that have passed since then, 
the accumulation of earth about it was such that 
it was buried from sight until its very existence 
passed entirely from recollection." 



XI. 

The first street laid out in Chester 
was ordered 8 mo. 2, 1686, the Grand 
Jury report that they "doe layout a 



88 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



street, and a landing upon the creek, 
to the corner lot far as over against the 
North-west corner of the Court House 
fifty foote in breadth and from thence 
up the said Chester towne for a street 
30 foote in breadthe." This street 
was first called Chester street, then 
Front street, now Edgmont Avenue. At 
June Court, 1689, the Grand Jury laid 
out a landing place and open street 
"beginning at the North-westerly cor- 
ner of the Court house to low water 
mark by Chester creek [being part 
of Filbert or Second street,] and so 
of the same breadth by the said creek 
down to Delaware river to low water 
mark, [now Edgmont from Second lead- 
ing to the lower pier,] thence and also 
from the first mentioned corner of the 
Court House a Public street 30 feet 
wide through Chester town," being 
Edgmont Avenue laid out by the re- 
port of the former Grand Jury, 

In accordance with a petition of 
David Lloyd, a road or street was laid 
out from his plantation on Chester 
creek to the public landing. The Grand 
Jury on 4 mo. 4, 1690, laid out a 
street 30 feet wide, "the one-half of 
this public street to be on one side 
of the line dividing betwixt David 
Lloyd's and the Green, L. C. [i. e, 
Laurentins Carolus] one-half on David 
Lloyd's land, the other half on the 
Green's side." The street began at 
the public landing place on Chester 
creek, and ended "at the further side 
of Joseph Richard's lot near David 
Lloyd's house; note also that if any 
part of the 15 foot on David Lloyd, 
his side, which is laid out for the street, 
it must so remain." The street thus 
laid out was called Filbert street, and 
is now named Second street in the jjlan 
of the City of Chester. 

Dr. Smith savs, "The street thus laid 



out is now known as Filbert street, and 
we are thereby enabled with great pre- 
cision to locate the "Green," a plot 
of ground well known at that period, 
and for some time afterwards by that 
name. This Green was church land, 
and was no doubt secured by the Swedes 
in anticipation of the erection of a 
church at Upland. It is included in 
a patent for a larger tract of land grant- 
ed to the Rev. Laurenty Caroly, Min- 
ister to the Swedes, April 8, 1669, [a 
copy of which has been hereinbefore 
inserted.] The patent includes the 
whole of the river front from Upland 
kill to Prisser's kill, and is referred to 
as the Minister's land, in a patent grant- 
ed to Jurien Kene, on the 14th of Aug. 
of the previous year. ' ' 

On the 7th of Sept., 1684, the bounds 
of "the Green" were definitely deter- 
mined by a survey ; it consisted of five 
acres in the form of a parallelogram, 
1 2 perches along the East side of Ches- 
ter creek to the Delaware, thence along 
the river for 65 perches, "a tract of 
the Swedes in Upland township," re- 
corded in the office of the Surveyor- 
General, Book B, page 3, &c. Mr. 
Weidner's foundry is situated on the 
Green, at the present writing, and the 
lot from Market street to the houses on 
Edgmont street, and from Second to 
the river, was called the Green when I 
lived in Chester. 

On the 15th of May, 1699, David 
Lloyd presented a Petition to the Pro- 
vincial Council, stating that he had 
purchased a small parcel of land at Ches- 
ter, "called the Green," which ^^ Lyes 
very commodious for building a town. 
It fronts both Chester creek and Dela- 
ware river, and is protracted, and a 
Market place laid out, with streets by 
y* Surveyor General, as by the mapp 
to the said ])etition annex't ai)pears;" 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



89 



and he asked the Council "to allow 
and confirm the said Model as the 
law in that case directs." But Jas- 
per Yeates interfered, and stated that 
the Green was Church land, and he 
was unwilling that Lloyd should " ob- 
tain an Act of Assembly to strengthen 
a pretended title to the Green lying be- 
fore Upland." The map mentioned 
by David Lloyd in his petition, is not 
on record. It appears, however, in 
regard to the title, that Lloyd obtained 
on Dec. 28, 1693, a conveyance of the 
Green to himself, from the Church 
Wardens of the Swedes congregation 
att Wiccocoe, which with an indem- 
nifying bond, was recorded Dec. 30, 
1693. The consideration was "five 
shillings of Lawful Monie of Pennsyl- 
vania;" and the quantity of land con- 
veyed, was ' ' seven acres of Land & 
Meadow, situate, lying and being in 
the County of Chester." For a copy 
of the Conveyance, see Dr. Smith' s His- 
tory, p. S5S, note K. 

Jasper Yeates' objection was, that 
the Green was Church land still in 
1699, and appropriated for that use 
forever. Lloyd's petition was granted, 
however, "Saving to the Proprietor & 
Gov. & to all other persons their 
rights." I Col. Records, (i ed.,) 526. 

In note B, Record of Upland Court, p. 200, 
it is stated, " The deeds for the property here 
referred to are in possession of Dr. J. D. 
Logan, and the premises were conveyed by 
David Lloyd to Jasper Yeates, by deed 
of Sept. 22, 1703, recorded at Chester, in 
Deed Book K, No. 10, p. 180 — endorsed, 
' For the Green before Jasper Yeates' door.' 
The deed recites that the land was formerly 
granted by warrant from Wm. Penn, 31st 
March, 1684, and laid out by the Surveyor 
General, Oct. il, 1684, for the use of the 
Swedes' minister, and afterwards confirmed by 
Patent from the Commissioners, May 23, 1690, 
to Swan Swanson, Andrew Bankson, Lasse 
Cock, Casper Fish, and Peter Rambo, ' the 



Church Wardens, of the Swedes' Congrega- 
tion, for the use of the Minister then present 
or to come ;' and that the patentees, by order 
and consent of the Swedes' Congregation at 
Wicaco and Crane Hook, on Dec. 29, 1693, 
conveyed the premises to David Lloyd. The 
objection to the title was removed, by release 
from Penn, of Oct. 24, 1701, Patent Book A, 
p. 233. The 'Green' extended along the 
river from Chester Creek nearly to Welsh 
Street ; but the map of the market-place is 
not to l)e found at Harrisburgh ; and the street 
called New Street, which ran parallel with 
the Delaware, has long since been washed 
away." 

In I Col. Records, (i ed. ,) 600, under 
date of Nov. 19, 1700, is the entry: 
"At w"" time upon reading the Peti- 
tion of James Sandilands of Chester 
town to the — — , adjourned," &c. 
I am fortunately able to supply the 
blank in the printed record by the 
following, which is a copy of the ori- 
ginal, taken from the Logan Manu- 
scripts, viz. : — 

" Unto the Honble William Penn, Esq., 
Absolute Proprietor «& Ciovernor in Chief of 
the Province of Pennsilvania & the Territo- 
ries thereunto belonging, and the Council 
thereof now sitting at New Castle. 

" The Petition of James Sandilands of Ches- 
ter in the Countie of Chester, most 

humbly showeth, That whereas his Late Ma- 
jesty, Charles y* 2* of England, y« King by 
his Letters Patent and y'= great Seal thereof, 
bearing date y* fourth day of March, in the 
33rd year of his Reign Annoy Domi 1681, 
among other things did for him, his Heirs and 
Successors Give & Grant to the said Wm. 
Penn his heirs and assigns a free & absolute 
power to divide the Countie or Province of 
Pennsilvania in sd letters Patent mentioned, 
into Towns, Hundreds and Counties, and to 
erect and incorporate Towns into Burroughs, 
& Burroughs into Cities & to make & consti- 
tute Fairs & Markets herein, with all other 
convenient privileges & Immunities, according 
to the meritts of the Inhabitants & fitness 
of y^ places. And that whereas by the custom 
& usages of y« said Province, the Governor & 
Council have been used att all times to settle 



90 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



& order y* scituasion <.)( all Cities & Market 
towns in evcric Coiintie in )■•' s** jnovince, and 
to model therein all public buildings, streets & 
Market places. And whereas y" Petitioner is 
possessed of a certain spot of land lying in s* 
Countie of Chester, verie fitt & naturally com- 
modious for a Town & to that end lately caused 
the s** spot of Land to be divided & Laid out 
into Lotts, Street & Market place, a Draft & 
Model whereof (the generallie desided & 
Leiked of by y* s<i Inhabitants of 5"^ Countie) 
is notwithstanding herewith presented & sub- 
mitted to your honors for your approbation & 
consent. 

"May it therefore please your Honors to 
approve of y« s**. Model & to erect y* s^ spot 
of Land into a town for y* further advance- 
ment of y« s<* Province in General & of y« s"" 
Countie of Chester & y'' inhal>itants thereof in 
particular. 

" And your Petitioner as in duty bound 
shall ever pray," &c. 

•' Att a Council held at New Castle in the 
Territories of the Province of Pennsilvania 
die mart is the 19th of Nov. 1700. 

" Present the Honorable William Penn 
Proprietor and Governor, 



Phineas Pemberton, 
Caleb Puscy, 



John Blunston, 
Thomas Storie. 



" Upon reading the within Petition & upon 
hearing the Petitioner & some of y* Inhabi- 
tant of ye within Countie of Chester, Jasper 
Yeates & Robert ffrench who married two of 
the Petitionei-s' Sisters, wer sent for, and y« s^ 
Petition was again read to them, and being 
Askt if they had anything to object Ak' the 
same, they answered that they had not ; and 
Ja.sper Yeates added that he had advised with 
a person or persons skilled in the Law, whether 
the said Petitioner had power to sell the Land 
in the petition mentioned, and they had told 
him hee had power & might sell the same. 
Whereupon the Proprietory & Governor & 
Councill having approved of the within Pe- 
tition & of the design thereof & Looking 
upon the place within proposed to be fitt for a 
Town, did not onlie approve of y" within & 
annexed model, but also did erect & do hereby 
erect the said spot of Land so modelled & Laid 
outt Into a Town ])rovided the same do not 
encroach upon othermen's Lands without their 
express consent under their Hands and Scales, 



and saving to the Projirietor & Governor & 
everie one their right. 
Signed by order, 

Patrick Robinson, SecfyT 

It is to be regretted, that the model 
or design mentioned, is not annexed 
to the petition as stated. Robert E. 
Hanniim, Esq., says, "I had a copy 
of the original plot or map of the town 
of Upland, which I loaned to the town 
Council of the city of Chester for safe 
keeping. I applied for the map to the 
city authorities, and was told it could 
not be found." 

Jasper Yeates, above mentioned, 
married a daughter of James Sandi- 
lands, the elder, who died in 1692. 
Her name was Catharine. Mr. Yeates 
came from Yorkshire, in England, and 
settled in Delaware ; afterwards he 
married and resided for many years 
in Chester. In 1697, he purchased 
the mills and property at the mouth 
of Naaman's Creek, and about the 
same time he purchased lands at Ches- 
ter, known as the Granary. It was 
torn down some years since, and its 
site is now occupied by a cotton fac- 
tory. The upper story of the old 
building was used for the storage of 
grain, while the lower story was used 
as a biscuit bakery. Mr. Yeates was 
educated for the Bar, but preferred 
speculation, in which he Avas not suc- 
cessful. He was the grandfather of the 
late Mr. Justice (Jasper) Yeates of the 
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. He 
represented New Castle County in the 
Assembly, and after the separation of 
the lower counties, he was a Repre- 
sentative and Speaker of the Assembly. 
He was a Justice of the Supreme Pro- 
vincial Court from 1705 to 1715, and 
at the time of his death, about 1720, 
he was a member of the Provincial 
Council. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



91 



From the proceedings taken by the 
Court in 1692, it appears that there 
was a Public Dial at that time in Ches- 
ter, erected for the use of the people. 
Upon the petitions of James Lownes 
and others, the Grand Jury was author- 
ized ' ' to lay out a road to the Dyall Post 
straitway to the road for the conveni- 
ence of both town and country. ' ' This 
road was laid out, and returned as fol- 
lows : " Beginning at the Dyall post, 
and so running South 22 degrees West, 
to low water mark ; then beginning 
again at the Dyall post and running 
North 22 degrees P^ast, up the King's 
road, which said road or street is to 
contain thirty feet in breadth, and the 
said Dyall post is to be the Western 
bounds thereof." — Br. Smith, p. 183. 
The street thus laid out must have 
been Main Street, from the river to 
the intersection of the railroad, P^dg- 
mont Avenue and Sixth Street. Pro- 
vidence Road was laid out in 1683, 
to Chester, and as it led to the King's 
Road, it could be the only road called 
the " King's Highway," when the road 
from Edgmont to the King's Highway 
in Chester, was laid out 60 feet broad 
in 1687. 

The King's Road did not pass through 
Chester ; it crossed Chester and Ridley 
Creeks at the head of tide water. The 
Dyall Post must have stood about where 
the old Market House stood, at Third 
and Main Streets. It will be observ- 
ed, that I treat the streets of Chester, 
as if they stood exactly north and south, 
east and west. I know that they do 
not run so precisely. I use this mode 
for convenience, so that positions can 
be more easily understood. I took 
the idea from William Flavill, the pre- 
sent Surveyor of Chester, whom I no- 
ticed spoke of the streets as intersect- 
ing each by the principal points of the 



compass. In the return of the Grand 
Jury it will be seen that the street laid 
out, runs north 22 degrees east, and 
if I am in error in saying it is Main 
Street, the City Surveyor can easily 
put me right ; but as Lloyd in his pe- 
tition, says that a market place is laid 
out with streets in 1699, I think my 
idea is correct. 

I have not been able to find the 
date of the erection of the old Market 
House referred to, as standing at the 
intersection of Third and Market 
Streets. It stood on a platform of 
brick, about 44 by 24 feet, .surrounded 
by curb-stones ; the roof was support- 
ed on either side by seven brick pil- 
lars ; between the third and fourth 
columns, on the east and west sides, 
were small arches. The longest length 
of the structure extended along Mar- 
ket Street ; it had an arched ceiling, 
plastered, and was covered with a 
shingle roof. The four stalls on the 
north end were used for butchers' 
stalls, the other six by provision deal- 
ers. Over the northern half, there 
was erected about 1830. a frame struc- 
ture, 21 feet square, containing one 
large room, used in my boyhood by 
the Clicstt'r Library Company,^'' and 
as the Town Hall. This room was 
reached by a wooden stairway, on the 
outside of the eastern side of the Mar- 
ket house. On the centre of this story 
was a frame cupola, with green blinds, 
surmounted by a spire and a weather 
vane. The Market House was torn 
down in 1857, and the frame portion 
sold to J. Edward Clyde, Esq., Justice 
of the Peace, who removed it to Fifth 
Street, east of Market, opposite the 
Columbia Hotel, and now uses it for 
his office. The following is copied 
from an original paper in possession 
of the Historical Society, in the hand- 



92 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



writing of William Martin. ni\ fatlR-r, 
tlie then C'hief l^iirgcss cif C'lK-stcr. 

"At a iiiLctiiiuiofll'.c t'oimcil oft lie limou^li 
of C'hoter. held on WolncMluv, the iblh <hiy 
or Marcli, iSji.oii nioiioii the follow Ihl; re- 
solution was a(lo|)teil : 

/^esoh'fd, that the Uiirgess, together with 
Samuel Edwards and Samuel A. Price, he 
appointed a committee to wait on Richard 
Klower, Es(i., nn<l reipie'-t tiiat the • /\?u: 
Wi'tit/ier I'nue,' formerly on his mill, may l>e 
placed on the spire of the Town Hall. 

Extract fmm the minutes. 

(.Signed.) JosiiLA C. Eyki:, 

j. M. G. Li-.scfia.-., 
Jiiu' ]5r(X).mii,\i,i,. 

7 07011 Council. 

v.. lJ.\Kl.lNi;i(iN. Sfot-tarv:' 

At the June term of the Court, 1699, 
Jcseph Edge, Constable, of Chester, 
presented Henry Barnes, "for calling 
Governor Penn, a Rogue," <S:c. I'he 
rest of the constables returned, "All 
was well." 

In ProiKV s History of Pa., ist vol. 
p. 218, in a note, it is set forth that, 
"At Chester, the Quakers had meet- 
ings for Divine worship regularly, from 
the year 1675 ; in that year Robert 
Wade, and others, came over, and at 
his house the first meeting of record 
at this place was held on the loth of the 
nth mo., 1681.* Among the eminent 
persons of this Society, who settled in 
and near this jjlace in these early times, 
were Thomas Vernon, John Bowater, 
Thomas Minshall, Bartholomew Cop- 
pick, John Edge, c\:c. ; William Wood- 
manson,at Harold; John Simcock, at 
Ridley ; Nicholas Newlin/^ c\:c. 

The safety of both Chester and 
Darby from accidents by fire, was pro- 
vided for by legal enactment. Per- 

* Prior to this date it ajipears that the 
Friends on this side of the river were mem- 
bers of liurlinfjton Monthly Meeting, of which 
a session was held at Robert Wade's house 
15th of 9lh month, 1681. .See Mirhenei's 
Rftrospcft of Early Q^inkerimii, p. 36. 



.sons were not i)ermitted to .set their 
chimneys on fire to cleanse them, nor 
suffer them "to become so foul as to 
take fire and blaze out at the to])." 
Every housekeeper was obliged " to 
keep in his or her house, a swab at 
least 12 or 14 feet long, as also two 
leather buckets." I deposited in the 
office of the Delaware Mutual Safety 
Insurance Compan)' some years ago, 
for safe keeping, two old leather fire- 
buckets, formerly belonging to my 
grandfather, Dr. William Martin, of 
Chester, purchased by him in 1798. 
The following is a copy of the receipt 
for the same, found among his papers: 

" Received, July 14th, 1798, of Wm. 
Martin, five dollars, for a ])air of fire 
buckets. 

[oHN HlRCHALF,." 

Doll. 5. 

The inhabitants of Marcus Hook, 
having had confirmed to their town by 
Charter, from the Provincial Coun- 
cil, by order made the 12th mo. 14, 
1700, t)f the privilege of holding a 
Fair and Market at that place, which 
had been granted to them formerly 
by Gov. Markham and Council, the 
people of Chester became alarmed, 

I and presented to the Council on the 
7th mo. 23, 1701, a petition, stating, 
" That whereas the Governor & Coun- 
cil about eleven years ago, had grant- 
ed to the said Town two ffairs, to be 

; held every year, w""* to this time they 
had quietly enjoyed ; but now, by rea- 
son of one fair being granted to Chi- 
chester, they were informed one of 

I their' s was to be suppressed, \\'"' is 
likely to prove injurious & much to the 
damage & disappointment of the s** 

I Inhabitants, who, as usual, had made 

I provision for their approaching fair." 
"Ordered, that because of the provi- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



93 



sion made aforesaid, the fair, w"" was 
of course to be held in the beginning 
of the next 8th month ensuing, be still 
continued and held at the same time 
as usual, any Order to the contrary 
notwithstanding ; and that both said 
fairs, with a weekly market, and the 
streets &c. of the said Town, be con- 
firmed to the said Inhabitants by Char- i 
ter, in case they make due application [ 
for the same. ' ' 2 Col. Records, 40. 1 

The order of Council referred to as 
having been made upon a petition 
of the inhabitants of Chichester, and ■ 
others, as presented to the Coimcil, , 
is endorsed and dated the 14th of 
12 mo., 1700. The original can be 
seen among the Logan Papers, in vol. 
iv., marked "Roads," in the Histori- i 
cal Society of Pa., and is as follows ; 

" The Humble Petition of William Claiton, j 
James Brown, Walter Marten, and the rest of | 
the Inhabitants of Chichester & others to Wib j 
Ham Penn, Esq. and the Council thereof Ab- 1 
solute Proprietor and Governor of Pennsilva- 
nia and territorys thereto belonging, Humbly 
Showeth that your said petitioners desire your 
Honors that you would grant two fail's to the 
town of Chichester to be kept yearly in Broad 
street at the times and places as hereafter 
shall be mentioned by your said petitioners 
William Claiton, James Brown & Walter 
Marten. The fairs to be kept in Broad st., 
Chichester, the first fair to be kept on the 22d, 
23d and 24th days of June, the second fair the 
22d, 23d and 24th days of September. Whereas 
last year your s* petitioners did exhibit a peti- 
tion to the lieftenant Governor & Council of 
Pennsilvania, to wit, for a Market to be kept 
\\'eekly in Broad street at the town of Chi- 
chester, on Friday or the sixth day of each 
week as hereafter shall be showed. The s'* 
Lieftenant Governor and Council did grant to 
the town of Chichester, a Market to be kept at 
the time and place as was desired by your 
said petitioners. We acknowledge ourselves 
much obliged to them for their kindness to us. 
ffurther your said petitioners desire your Hon- 
ors that you would further confirm our said 
Nfarkel to vour said petitioner^. The jilnce 



laid out by your said petitioners, William Clai- 
ton, James Brown and Walter Marten, is on 
the road that comes out of the country to the 
river side at Chichester, Between the enclosed 
fields of William Claiton & James Brown at 
the town now being laid out into a street. The 
situation of the place having a descent two or 
three ways, and it hath a good prospect to the 
higher than the rest, and for commodiousness 
it is upon the main Road to the town that goes 
to the river, being convenient for both town, 
country and river. To accommodate the fair 
place and Market place, it is laid out Thus, 
to begin 200 feet from the River side the 
place to keep the fair and market house in is 
230 foot in length and 140 foot in breadth as 
by the draught of the plot reference thereto had 
doth appear. Your said petitioners desire that 
you would grant us our reasonable proposals, 
that is to say, the fair place for all men's 
marchant goods, wars, produce and victuals 
whatsoever to be kept in the place that is laid 
out 230 foot in length 140 in breadth, which 
is the market place, and the fair place for 
Horses, Cattle, Sheep and all other live goods 
whatsoever, to be kept in that place that is 
500 foot in length and 100 foot in breadth 
which extendeth from the market place to the 
bridge. The Street from the River side to 
the bridge is now called Broad street. Your 
Petitioners Humbly desire your Honors that 
you would give us a Charter for two ffairs to 
be kept yearly forever, and for our market 
according as it was granted us by the lieften- 
ant Governor and Council, that is to say, to 
be kept weekly on the sixth day of the week 
as above said, with all the incidents thereto 
belonging. We hope that y(ni would grant us 
our reasonable proposals if you think fit and 
conveniens of them with what privileges and 
profits that may accrue In time to come to 
your said petitioners in so doing we shall be 
very much obliged to you for your favour and 
kindness, and shall be ready to serve you in 
your reasonable demands, with our desire for 
your health welfare & prosperity shall be con- 
tinued by your Humble petitioners. 

Philip Roman, John Pahnjr, 

lona. Heayes, Nathaniell Parkt, 

Nath. Lamphi;;h. Henry (;)born, 

John Kingsniaii, John Hannum, 

Thomas Clarrett, Thomas King, 

John Garrett, John Mendenhall, 

William flamming;, Kobert Chamberlin. 

Samnell Scot. lien]. .Mendenhall. 



94 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



.l.inKs Hay:.nl. 
Henry Giiiiston, 
Jacob Chandler, 
Francis Baldwine, 
John BecUinhani, 
Jonathan Compton, 
Robert Eyre, 
John Bezer, 
Humphrey Johnson^ 
Henry Hastings, 
John Hurlbcrt, 
James VVhitaker, 
Thomas Browne, 
Jeremiah Carter, 
Thomas Bald«ine, 
Hancc Justis, 
John Baldwine, 
John Willis, 
William Clayton, 
James Browne, 
Walter Marten, 
William Thomas, 
Robert Roman, 
Tho. Withers, 
James Mill, 
Tim. Atkinson, 
William hewes, 
Richard Bezer, 
John Chandler, 
Geo. Chandler, 
William flower, 
Robert JefTry, 
Charles Roson, 
James Swaffcr, 
James Widdows, 
James Clcmson, 
Edward Bezer, 
John Gibbons, Sr., 
James Gibbons, 
John Gibbons, Jr., 
William Cloud, 
Tho. James, 
George Strode, 
Jcr. Collett, Jr., 
Joseph Cloud, 
John Willis, 
Thomas Green, 
Thomas Hall, 



Joseph Edwards, 
Joseph Bushell, 
Thomas Moore, 
Richard flTarr, 
Morgan Jones, 
Nicholas Pile, 
Isaac Taylor, 
Thomas Eavenson, 
Richard Woodward, 
Edward Wood^vard, 
Richard Woodward, Jr 
Edward Bennett, 
Hugh Harris, 
William Brinton, Jr., 
John Bennett, 
John Hutch, 
Peter Dix, 
Francis Chads, 
Edmund Butcher, 
Richard Crosby, 
William Browne, 
William Buckingham, 
Thomas Powell, 
James Bailis, 
Albeat Hcndrickes, 
John Hannum, 
John Croby, 
John Worrall, 
George Grist, 
Richard Bond, 
Samuel Robinett, 
Josiah Taylor, 
John Howell, 
Thomas Taylor, 
Nathaniel Evans, 
John Childs, 
John Davis, 
Joseph Jarvis, 
John Pcnick, 
Thomas Pearson, 
Thomas Hope, 
William Huntly, 
Thomas Masey, 
Thomas Bright, 
Joseph Richards, 
Charles Whitaker, 
Will. Ratue, 
Edw. Penick . 



It is set forth in the 14 Colonial 
Records, p. 474, that two Wardens of 
the Port appeared before the Supreme 
Executive Council, on June 8, 1785, 
and pre.sented the several proposals of 
Joshua Humjihreys and Thomas Con- 
narroe, for raising piers at Marcus Hook 
agreeably to the plan before the Board, 
and also articles of agreement between 
the Commonwealth and the holders of 
the land at that place, executed on the 
first. The articles state that the sev- 
eral j)ersons whose names are subscrib- 



ed, viz. : Joseph Few, John Crawford, 
Richard Riley, Robert Moulder, John 
Flower, AVilliam Burns, John Price 
and Thomas Moore, their heirs, &:c., 
"may have and enjoy the liberty 
and privilege of sinking, building and 
carrying out from the ends of their 
respective lots, any piers, wharves or 
other erections whatsoever, provided 
the same be not carried out further 
than the extent of the wharf or pier 
now called Moulder's Pier, lying to 
the southward of the said lots of 
ground, and of the wharf or pier in- 
tended to be sunk by William Burns, 
opposite thewharf or pier called Burns' 
Pier, lying to the northward of the 
said lots of ground. ' ' They also agree 
to allow all persons free passage over 
their respective wharves, and to per- 
mit all vessels lying at the public 
piers to lade and discharge their car- 
goes, without any let, hindrance, or 
molestation. The witnesses to the 
agreement are Nath'l Falconer, Jos. 
Bullock, Cxeo. Ord and John Hazle- 
wood. 

The United States have at Marcus 
Hook two landing piers, and four stone 
ice-breakers, forming the winter or ice- 
harbor at that point ; one landing 
pier is at the foot of Church Street, 
the other at the foot of Market Street. 
There is also a wharf to the east of 
the sugar refinery, now in ruins, and 
another pier some distance below 
Market Street, called Walker's Pier, 
owned by the heirs of my old friend, 
Samuel T. Walker, who died Feb. i, 
1872, in the 68th year of his age. 

The quaint old Market House for- 
merly standing on Market Street, be- 
tween Water and New Streets, has 
lately been torn down b\- \'andal 
hands. Its lornicr site is unoccuijied, 
except by grass and weeds, and a view 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



95 



that used to be picturesque, is now a 
scene of desolation. The town along 
the banks of the river, where the beach 
is sandy, is very attractive. There are 
some very neat residences along the 
beach, on Water Street, fronting the 
Delaware. Marcus Hook is a very 
quiet, retired village, but attempts are 
now being made by John Larkin, Jr., 
to revive its trade, and to disturb the 
profound repose the town has enjoyed 
for the last century. 

Dr. Smith says, p. 136, "The grant 
formerly made from Gov. Markham to 
the inhabitants at Marcus Hooke, att 
their request, for calling the name of 
the said town Chichester, which said 
grant bears date the 20th day of April, 
1682, -and was read and published in the 
Court held at Upland, June 13, Anno 
1682, according to order, as a record 
thereof." Notwithstanding the fact 
that the name of Marcus Hook was 
thus changed to Chichester, nearly 
200 years ago, the old town still bears 
its original historic name. 

Among the list of taxables in Upland 
jurisdiction, in 1677, the following are 
given as residing in Marr. Kill, /. e., 
Marcus Hook : 

Jan Jansen, oele Raessen, 

will orian, John Browne, 

Daniel Linsey, Rich, fredericx, 

morton Knoetsen, hans oelsen, 

Knoet mortensen, Tho. harwood, 

albert hendricx, Jiirian hertsveder, 

oele Coeckoe, andries Inckhoorrn, 

Carell Jansen, Rodger Pedrick, 

Thorn. Denney, Christaen Claassen, 
Jacob Clocker. 

And the following is a list of tax- 
ables residing in Upper and Lower 
Chichester, in 1722. 



Phillip Roman, 
Richard Bezar, 
Joseph Bond, 
John Rawson, 
Thomas Clayton 
Philip Pedrick, 
John Cloud, 
John Wily, 



William Hughes, 
William Cleaton, 
John Fowler, 
Thomas Howell, 
John Reyley, 
Robert I'lumer, 
John Weldon, 
Alexander Easac 



Abel Cleaton, 
Edward Fell, 
John Bezar, 
Nathan Wood, 
Daniel Brown, 
Jeremiah Collett, 
William Clayton, 
Samuel Cowen, 
Francis Reynolds, 
Matthew Wood, 
Edward Robinson, 
John Renols, 



Edward Smout, 
Hugh Loe, 
Hance Mitchel, 
Humphrey Scarlet, 
Robert Shelly, 
Ephraim Logue, 
Francis Ruth, 
Henry Reynolds, 
Ruth Chandler, 
Joseph Wood, 
Thomas Linvil, 
Edward Whitacar. 



Non-resident land-holders. 

Jacob Usher, Daniel Cloud. 

Some years ago, there was published 
in the Delaware County Republican, 
a very interesting sketch of St. Mar- 
tin's Church, at Marcus Hook, signed 
"Town Clerk," who is a well-known 
gentleman, a resident of that place, 
Capt. Frank Smith, to whom I am in- 
debted for a list of the Missionaries and 
Clergymen, successively officiating in 
charge of St. Martin' s, from the year 
1702, in which year the Society for 
Propagating the Gospel in Foreign 
Parts (of London), sent out as Mis- 
sionary their first preacher, in .which I 
have made some corrections from in- 
formation contained in Dr. Perry's 
" Papers relating to the History of the 
Church in Pennsylvania." 

1. Rev. Henry Nichols, Missionary, 1704 to 1708 

2. " George Ross, 1708 " 1714 

3. " John Humphreys, " 1714 " 1725 

4. " Samuel Hesselius, " 1726 

5. " Richard Backhouse, " 1728 " 1749 

6. " Thomas Thompson, " 1751 

7. " Israel Acrelius, " 1755 

8. " Jno. Abrm. Lidineus, " 1756 
g. " Eric Unander, " 1757 

10. " George Craig, " 1758 to 1781 

11. " James Connor, " 1787 " 1790 

12. " Joseph Turner, " 1791 " 1811 

13. " Charles Dupuy, Rector, 1811 " 1816 

14. " Jacob M. Douglass,* " 1817 " 1820 

* Rev. Jacob M. Douglass, died in Phila- 
delphia, May II, 1876, in the 83d year of his 
age. He was a son of Andrew, and grand- 
son of Brig. Gen. Morgan, who commanded 
the Pennsylvania Line at the battle of Tren- 
ton. One of his sisters married the late Rev. 
Richard D. Hall. His eldest son, Rev. Ben- 
jamin J. Douglas, was born in Delaware 
County, and is now a minister of the Diocese 
of Delaware. 



JIISTOKY OF CHESTEK. 



15 Rc\ 


. Samuel C. Marks. Rector, 


1820 to 


1821 


i6. " 


Richarii U. Morgan, " 


1822 ' 


1831 


17. " 


John Baker Clemson, " 


1831 ' 


1835 


18. " 


Richard U. Hall, 


1835 ' 


1837 


19. " 


Mortimer R. Talbot, " 


1837 ' 


1841 


20. " 


Greeiiberry W. Ridglcy, " 


1842 • 


'1844 


21. " 


Anson H. Hard, 


1844' 


1849 


22. " 


Charles VV. Quick, 




I849 


23. " 


Henry B. Bean, 


1850 ' 


'1851 


24. •' 


Benj. S. Huntington, " 


1852 ' 


'1853 


25. " 


John Baker Clemson, " 


1853 ' 


•1858 


26. " 


Henry Hall Hickman, " 




1859 


27. " 


Joseph A. Stone, 


1859 ' 


' 1868 


28. " 


J. Sturgis Pearce, 


1868 ' 


'1871 


29. " 


Levi Bird, 


1871 


' 



Capt. Smith says: — "I am the 
author of the article signed ' ToK>n 
Clerk.' What is contained therein, 
was hastily searched out and dotted 
down at the time when the Vestry of 
the Church had a dispute with the 
School Directors, in regard to the title 
to the land and old School-house, lo- 
cated on one end of the lot, donated 
by Walter Martin, in 1699. One of the 
direct descendants of Jan Hendrick- 
son, (from whom was purchased the 
old building moved on to secure the 
lot. in 1702,) was Chairman of the 
Board of Sciiool Directors, and I 
deemed it of some consequence to in- 
fluence the Board to abandon their 
claim ; it succeeded, and I was satis- 
fied." The article referred to is as 
follows : 

"A certain Walter Martin, of the 
township of Upper Chichester, in the 
county of Chester, in the Province of 
Pennsylvania, Yeoman, for divers good 
causes and considerations him there- 
unto moving, executed a deed of free 
gift to the inhabitants of the town and 
township of Chichester, bearing date 
the 1 8th day of December, in the year 
of our I,ord 1699, for a churchyard 
and free burying place, for the inhab- 
itants — Quakers and reputed Quakers 
only excepted." 'I'he following clause 
of said deed sets forth a rule of faith 
and doctrines, which must be ( om- 



plied with, and heldhs that " persua- 
sion of Christians, who can secure the 
lot by building a church, chapel, or 
meeting-house thereon. The inhabi- 
tants of said town and township which 
are to have free liberty to build a church , 
chapel, or meeting-house, are intended 
to be such as own the two ordinances 
of the sacraments of Baptism and the 
Lord's Supper, viz., water baptism, 

! that is, sprinkling or dipping ; and 
the Lord's Supper of bread and wine; 

' and such as own the resurrection of the 
bodies of the dead, and own the ordi- 
nance of singing of psalms in the praise 
of God, in the congregation, or in their 
families, and such as own the taking 
an oath on the Bible, according to the 
laws of England, if lawfully called 
thereto for the confirmation of the 
truth ; and it is to be a free burying 
place to such as will bear part of the 
costs of keeping up the fences, or 
concern themselves with building a 
church, chapel, or meeting-house there- 
on." With regard to the exception 
against Quakers, he gives the following 
explanation : '-One reason is, because 
the Quakers have a meeting-house of 
their own in the said township." He, 
the said Walter Martin, chose William 
Thomas as the "first sexton or grave- 
digger for the town of Chichester, 
during his life, or so long as he is able 
to perform the duties appertaining to 
the office of sexton or grave-digger, 
and after his death or disability, he 
gives full liberty to such as are ''con- 
cerned" in keeping up the said bury- 
ing place, to choose his successor; 
and his true intent and meaning is, 
" that the said lot, containing one acre 
and one scpiare perch of land, is to be 
kept for the purposes above named 
and for no other whatever." It is 
interred from other evidence, that 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



97 



Walter Martin, was a man of means I 
and of intelligence, and probably of no | 
immediate descendants, as he reserves 
a grave lot for hwiself and friends in ] 
a particular part of the yard. 

By reference to Hazard's Annals of 
Pennsylvania, we find the same Walter 
Martin was an inhabitant of Chester 
County, in the year 1682 ; for upon 
the arrival of William Penn, in that 
year, he convened a General Assembly, 
to meet him at Upland (now Chester), 
and Walter Martin appears as one of 
nine Assemblymen elected to represent 
the inhabitants of Chester County, in 
that Assembly. 

In the list of lands sold in England, 
Ireland and Scotland, and sent over 
to the Surveyor General with instruc- 
tions to lay out to the respective pur- 
chasers, we find Walter Martin's name 
set down for five hundred acres, in the 
20th division of ten thousand acres. 

In the vestry-book of St. Martin's 
church, we find that the friends of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church living in 
the township and surrounding neigh- 
borhood, for the purpose of promptly 
securing the lot thus laid open to the 
competition of different denomina- 
tions, exerted themselves to obtain a 
building, and in a very humble way 
succeeded, as will more quaintly ap- 
pear by the following statement, which 
is found written on the opening page 
of the old vestry-book of the church. 

"Sundry persons, adventurers from 
England, Scotland and Ireland, into 
the Province of Pennsylvania, being 
well principled in and affected to the 
pure apostolick and primitive doctrine 
and discipline of the truly Episcopal 
and Protestant Church of England, as 
by law established, &c., finding little 
or no satisfaction in their own mind, 
without having sacred places set apart 



for paying that public worship and 
adoration to the Supreme Being, which 
from the dictates of our conscience we 
know to be due, &c. We, the con- 
gregation, professors of the Church of 
England, at this time being few in 
number, and of less ability to build a 
decent place of worship," &c. 

They purchased an old wooden frame 
house from Jan and Tobias Hendrick- 
son, for about five pounds, which was 
a great sum in those days, and having 
removed it from where it stood, into 
the lot conve)'ed by Walter Martin for 
a churchyard, they fitted it up as well 
as they could for divine worship, &c., 
in the year of our Lord 1702. Then 
the honorable Society for Propagating 
the Gospel in Foreign Parts, Anno 
Domini 1702, sent over the Rev. 
Henry Nichols, as their missionary to 
Chichester church. Some years after, 
the Rev. George Ross was sent to suc- 
ceed him, and in the year 1724, the 
Rev. John Humphries came, who re- 
mained five years.* From the time of 
Mr. Humphries' ministry (1724), up 

* Captain Smith is in L-rrur in hi.s dates. 
In Dr. Pcrr/s Papers relating to the Church 
in Pennsylvania, p. t,t„ the Rev. Evan Evans, 
in a letter, states, that he preached frequently 
at Chichester and Chester until the arrival of 
the Rev. Mr. Nichols in 1704, and at p. 53, it 
is said of Mr. N., "that gentleman remained 
with us above three years." George Ross 
was Missionary at St. Martin's from 1708 to 
1714. John Humphreys, from 1714 to 1725, 
when he went to Baltimore, and refused to 
return unless the churches at Marcus Hook 
and Chester would raise his salary to ^40 
per annum. In 1726, "a great mortality 
reigned amongst us ; we were obliged to desire 
the Rev. Mr. Hesselius, the Swedish minis- 
ter at Christiana, who, out of his pious and 
christian disposition, came to bur)' our dead, 
and seeing the disconsolate condition of our 
churches, offered to assist us once a month at 
our churches, which he still continues to do." 
This statement in Dr. Perry's Papers, Penn- 
sylvania, pp. 152-3, is dated April 5, 1727, 
and signed by Ralph Pile, Philip Ottey and 
others. 



98 



HISTORY OF GllKSTEK. 



to tliis pL'ridd, till.' records liave been 
very regularly kept. 

The generous donor, Walter Martin, 
lived until the year 1 7 19. Massive head 
and foot stones mark his grave in the lot 
he reser\ed for himself ami friends in 
the deed of gift. A few years since the 
wardens and vestry of the church, with 
commendable taste, had his grave-stone \ 
re-dressed and re-lettered, bringing out j 
the old inscription, which bears the j 
following expressive and quaint coup- ' 
let : I 



' The just mail 
And when he 



111 good men's love, 
he's bless'd above." 



The only other mention found of 
Walter Martin, in any of the records, 
is in the t)ld township book, where 
there is a record that in the year 1701, 
Walter Martin was superseded as one 
of the post wardens of the town of 
Marcus Hook : by which we infer that 
that ancient town, even at that time, 
had all the attributes of greatness 
which it so eminentlv retains unto this 
day. 

The John, or Jan Hendrickson from 
whom the old frame building was ob- 
tained, to answer the purpose of the 
first church edifice, according to Ha- 
zard'' s Annals, was one of the six per- 
sons to whom the grant of Marcus 
Hook was made, in the year 1676. 
The grant embraced 1000 acres of 
land, and was made by Gov. Francis 
Lovelace, some five years before Wil- 
liam Penn obtained his charter of 
Pennsylvania from the crown of Great 
Britain. The descendants in the sev- 
enth and eighth generation from the 
said Jan Hendrickson, are our present 
cotemjjoraries, and are both numerous 
and among our most substantial in- 
habitants. 

The regular transactions of the ves- 



try are duly recorded, with very slight 
interruptions, from the time of the 
Rev. John Humphries' arrival in the 
year 1724, to this day. The names 
mentioned in the original deed, as 
holding lands adjoining the church- 
yard conveyed, are among the first 
vestry. John Flowers was the first 
Warden. He owned the lands on the 
south end of the yard, and his descen- 
dants have been regular worshippers 
ever since. Generation after genera- 
tion of that family and name have 
been gathered to their fathers, and are 
now mouldering to dust, side by side, 
in the very centre of its bounds. 

The first son of English parents, 
born under the Penn grant, in the 
Province of Delaware, is said, in Wat- 
son^ s Annals, to have been Emanuel 
Grubb, who was born in the year 1682, 
just after the landing of his parents, 
at the place known as Grubb' s Land- 
ing, in Brandywine Hundred, about 
three miles below Marcus Hook. His 
birth is said to have taken place in a 
cave, provided in a hurry, on the bank 
of the river. His name appears among 
the vestrymen, in 1725, and from that 
year up to this time, his descendants 
have been zealous worshippers, and 
generous patrons of the church. He 
died at the advanced age of 85 years, 
and lies buried in the centre of a vast 
circle of green mounds, each one la- 
belled with his honored surname. They 
have gathered around him like a faith- 
ful body-guard, as though anxious to 
protect him from the near approach of 
all, save their own clan. The name 
of Grubb is found among the vestry 
every year for over a hundred, with- 
out a single interruption. lx\ the year 
1745, the names of Emanuel Grubb, 
Sr., Emanuel Grubb, Jr., and Joseph 
Grubb, appear as liberal subscribers to 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



99 



the funds raised for the purpose of 
building a new church, on the site of 
the present edifice. It was built of 
brick, and after undergoing various 
alterations and additions, was finally 
torn down, and the present beautiful 
one constructed in its stead, in the 
year 1846. 

In the year 1725, Jeremy Collett 
left by will a legacy of ;^5o, for the 
" better support of the Episcopal min- 
ister officiating in the Chapel;" the 
old frame which stood on the ground 
near where the school-house now stands. 
After the brick church was built in 1 745, 
the "old frame " was generously per- 
mitted to be used, from time to time, 
as a school-house. 

In the year 1730, the Rev. John 
Humphries was succeeded by the Rev. 
Richard Backhouse.* From the year 
1738 to the year 1758, the church was 
presided over by the Swedish ministers. 
Rev. Israel Acrelius, Rev. John 
Abraham Lindinus, and the Rev. 
Eric Unander, each succeeding in 
the order of their names. 

The funds raised for the new church 
in 1745, were subscribed by an array 
of names familiar to us all who have 
an acquaintance extending to the cotin- 
try around us. I'here are the Fords, 
Kellims, Grubbs, Richards, Robinetts, 
Claytons, Worrells, Marshalls, Con- 
nells, Kerlins, Lampleys, Lawrences, 
Derricks, Carters, Clouds, Hanbys, 
Davises, Taylors, Flowers, Stewarts, 
Websters, Talleys, Phillips, Johnsons, 
Birds, Beestons, Perkinses, Centmells, 
Moulders, Buckleys, and a certain Eli- 



" Richard Backhouse took charge of Ches- 
ter, Marcus-Hook and Concord Churches, 
either late in 1727 or early in 1728. See 
Perry's Collections, 161. He died Nov. 19, 
1749, and was succeeded by Rev. Thomas 
Thompson, who sometime afterwards aban- 
doned his charge. When he did so, is not 
stated 

14 



zabeth Smith, who at that time was 46 
years of age, being born in the year 
1699. She lived until the year 1802, 
attaining the great age of 103 years, 
and thereby living in part of three 
centuries. She lies buried in the yard, 
with a head and foot stone marking 
the spot, on which is the record, from 
which this interesting fact is derived. 

In the year 1758^ the Rev. George 
Craig* came over from London, un- 
der the patronage of the celebrated 
"Society for Propagating the Gospel 
in Foreign Parts," and continued 
Rector until the Revolution broke 
out. There is an interruption to the 
records during the War, from 1775 
to 1783, but in the latter year, we find 
the Rev. George Craig presiding at the 
Easter meeting, and appointing his 
warden. After that year, the church 
records make no further mention of 
him, but his tombstone in the floor of 
the church commemorates the fact 
that he died some years after, and was 
there buried. 

At the annual meeting of the vestry, 
in the year 1760, Emanuel Grubb pro- 
posed the name of St. Martin's Church, 
in incidental commemoration of Wal- 
ter Martin, and the name was unani- 
mously adopted . From that time it has 
been known as St. Martin's Church, 
Marcus Hook. Great efforts had been 
made from the year 1682, to change 
the name of Marcus Hook to Chiches- 
ter, but without success, although an 
Act of Assembly had been obtained 
to effect it, and all legal documents, 
for many years, had so styled it, yet 
its old Indian name, slightly changed 
from the original, has pertinaciously 
adhered to it, and constitutes its great- 
est glory "until this day." 

* Married, June 15, 1775, the Rev. George 
Craig of Chester, to Miss Margaret Currie of the 
same place. — Penna. Magazine, \'o\. i. p. 290. 



100 



HISTORY OF CHESTEK. 



In the year 1769, the Treasurer 
ot the Coninu)n\vealth, Mr. Moore, 
paicl over to the wardens of St. Mar- 
tin's church the sum of j£66 i^s. 4^/., 
being St. Martin's share of the pro- 
ceeds of a lottery authorized by the 
Assembly of the Province, for the im- 
provement and repairs of St. Peter's 
and St. Paul's churches, Philadel])hia, 
and a few churches in the counties 
around the city. 

After the Revolutionary War, the 
church services were duly kept up by 
clergymen and lay readers, until the 
year 181 7, when the Rev. Jacob M. 
Douglas was called to the church as 
Rector. In the beginning of the pre- 
.sent century, it being found that the 
old frame building which constituted 
the first church, and had been used for 
that purpose from 1702 until 1745, 
then being replaced by a new church, 
had been used from time to time for 
school purposes, was now crumbling 
into ruins from age, and both the church 
members and the i)ublic at large were 
feeling the great need of a school- 
house to replace it; under this pressure 
of circumstances, a jniblic spirited old 
member of the church, took up the 
subject with zeal, and proposed to the 
vestry, if they would permit it, he 
would raise what funds he could by 
subscription, and any deficiency he 
would make up himself, and build a 
school-house on the " hitching lot," 
or the lot used for hitching horses on, 
which lot was a part of the church 
yard, fenced off for that purpose. The 
plain men composing the vestry very 
innocently acquiesced, but made it a 
particular condition to their consent, 
that the house should be built in a 
position to drive round, and offer no 
other obstruction to the lot, for the 
purpose for which the church used it. 



than occup)ing its size in its centre. 
It was built accordingly, and in strict 
compliance with the conditions exact- 
ed, and has always served as a place 
to hitch to ever since ; it has also 
always afforded some protection from 
the cold winds to horses hitched under 
its shelter. And although this permis- 
sion was not granted in writing, nor to 
the State, county or to the township, 
as an organized body politic, but a 
mere verbal permission given to certain 
individuals without corporate powers, 
as a favor to the community of which 
the grantors form a part. In short it 
was done in the fostering spirit of a 
few godly-minded men, who deemed 
it a duty to do good when an oppor- 
tunity offered, never dreaming they 
were violating the conditions of the 
deed of gift, or that they were giving 
to the public rights and powers which 
Avould in time enable them to lay claim 
to a property which had been for 160 
years consecrated to a pious and praise- 
worthy use. 

The people inhabiting this section 
of the county, cannot fail to profound- 
ly reverence the memory of their an- 
cestors who worshipped in St. Martin's 
church ; and whose mortal vestments 
are sinking into dust under the shadow 
of its walls. Where is the man, woman, 
or child in this community, whose pro- 
genitors lived and died here, that is 
without relatives sleeping the sleep of 
death in that crowded church-yard ? 
It has been planted over and over again 
with the children of men, who have 
had their day upon this earth, 'i'hey 
cherished it while they lived, and ap- 
pointed it as their last resting-place 
when time should be done with them. 
There is a beautiful record of two of 
them. It was written a hundred years 
ago in the vestry-book, that John Mar- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



101 



shall and Emanuel Grubb, each gave 
^5 to secure to their posterity the same 
seat they respectively occupied in the 
church at that time, so long as their 
descendants should continue Episco- 
palians. 

The white monuments of our prede- 
cessors are crowding each other around 
the church, adding greatly to the in- 
terest it presents as a ' Village Church- 
yard,' and seems eminently calculated 
to inspire those solemn contemplations 
which every sober-minded person feels 
from time to time, stealing over their 
senses, when reviewing the past, or 
casting their thoughts forward to the 
impenetrable future. How many are 
daily seen lingering about these silent 
habitations of the dead? How many 
who never enter the walls of the church 
to join in its public worship, or hear 
the ' Gospel trumpet sound,' are, 
nevertheless, touched by the silent 
solemnity that pervades the scene in 
that crowded city of the dead. 

Town Clerk.'-' 

A brief visit to the grave-yard of 
St. Martin' s enables me to add some 
names on the tombstones of families 
whose relatives are there interred, viz. : 
Harding, Burns, Gray, Toy, Justice, 
Vanneman, Davis, Moore, Queen, 
Elliott, Phillips, Hickman, Johnson, 
Lawrence, Bird, Wilson, Twaddell, 
Butler, Allen, Button, Mann, Larkin, 
Herbert, Lodge, Morton, Douglass, 
Lamplugh, Heacock, Winfield, Spran- 
zey. Churchman, Talley, Glover, Black, 
Cook, Boyd, Hayes, Shull, Gorbey, 
Taylor, Perkins, Grubb, Ford, Wood- 
worth, Young, Biddle, Coburn, An- 
derson, Goodley, Waggoner, Lauson, 
Lawson, Connot, Ebrite, Madgin, 
Beny, Miller, Loven, Flower, Art, 
Welsh, Marshall, Moulder, Tilby, 
Crow, Arans, Council, Bowan, Trute, 



Sayres, Wall, Laurence, Truett, Chap- 
man, McKee, Mofhtt, Parks, Weid- 
berg, and Williamson. 

The only quaint inscription I no- 
ticed, was this: — "In memory of 
Erasmus Morton, born Sept. 9, 1796, 
died Dec. 7, 1861. 

" Farewell my wife and children all, 
From you a father, Christ did call; 
Mourn not for me, it is in vain, 
To call me to your sight again." 

The Republican of April, 1 87 1 , says : 
"The Episcopalians attached to St. 
Martin's church, at Marcus Hook, who 
have so long been without a parsonage, 
have at last concluded that great want 
shall exist no longer. Through the 
liberality of two of the residents in that 
locality, a lot of ground containing 75 
by 150 feet, adjoining the Odd Fel- 
low's Hall, on the ridge, commanding 
a most beautiful view, has been dona- 
ted for the purpose. Subscriptions to 
the amount of between fourteen and 
fifteen himdred dollars have already 
been collected. The parsonage will 
cost about twenty-five hundred dollars, 
which the Committee hope speedily to 
obtain, when the building will be com- 
menced and completed without delay. 
We congratulate our friends at Marcus 
Hook, on a movement which will se- 
cure to their pastor a comfortable home. 
The Rector of the church is Rev. J. S. 
Pearce, and the Vestrymen elected on 
Monday last, are : William Trainer, 
Abner Vernon, G. H. Huddell, David 
Trainer, Frank Smith, A. T. Glass, 
Dr. John Cardeza, J. N. Trainer and 
J. Smith." 

Walter Martin, came from Westmin- 
ster, Middlesex County, England, and 
was a resident of Marcus Hook before 
Penn's arrival. He was the owner of 
a large tract of land on Naaman's creek 



102 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



which he purchased before leaving 
England. On his tombstone is en- 
graven, ''In the memory of Walter 
Martin, buried June 26, 1719, aged 68 
years." The stone is a rough sand- 
stone, and the couplet below illegible, 
(this was written before the stone was re- 
cut,) at the top of the stone is cut an 
hour-glass and cross-bones. 

Walter Martin, above mentioned, 
married in 1684, Jane a daughter of 
Joseph and Sarah Bushal, (the name is 
generally written Bushell,) of the So- 
ciety of Friends. John Williamson 
married Elizabeth Buckley, (daughter 
of Adam and Ann Buckley,) a grand- 
daughter of Walter and Jane Martin 
of Marcus Hook ; she was born 7 mo. 
21, 1730, died 7 mo. 22, 1805. This 
latter item is from the records of the 
family of Williamson from England 
who settled in Newtown in 1682. He 
was named by Walter Martin, as one 
of his executors with Nicholas Pyle ; 
both were Friends. For some mention 
of this family of Williamson, see A^in- 
cents' History of Delaware, i vol. 477. 
I was groomsman to Mr. and Mrs. 
Courtland Howell there mentioned. 

Adam, son of John and Elizabeth 
Williamson, above mentioned, lived 
about 1816 in Brandywine Hundred, 
Delaware. About half a mile from his 
residence was an old burial place called 
the Buckley grave-yard, enclosed by a 
stone wall, by the margin of the road 
leading from Grubb's landing to Bir- 
mingham. The graves of the Buck- 
ley's are marked by rude stones. Adam 
W. was a connection by marriage with 
the Gilpin's of Delaware. The will 
of Joseph Bushal, of Concord, dated 
8th of the 1 2th mo. 1703, in the Reg- 
ister's office at Philadelphia, shows that 
Walter and Jane Martin, had seven 
( hildren. The dc( cdent gives to " my 



son-in-law Walter Martin, Twenty shil- 
lings ; unto my daughter Jane's .srzvv/ 
children, that is to say, Walter, Mary, 
Steven, John, Ann, Sarah, and Eliza- 
beth Martin, Five pounds a piece. 
To my daughter Abigail Pyle 20 shil- 
lings, and to her five children, Mary, 
Edith, Nicholas, Samuel and James 
Pyle, p^5 a piece. To my wife Sarah 
all my estate during her life, after to my 
daughters or their heirs." 

Dr. Smith says Walter Martin left no 
male descendants, but he must have 
known that he left daughters. His will 
is dated Aug. 4, 17 15, and proven June 
27, 1 719, in which he mentions his 
father-in-law Joseph Bushell, mother-in 
law Sarah Bushell, wife Mary, daughters 
Mary, Ann, Elizabeth, and Sarah 
Martin, also grand-daughters Mary and 
Hannah Martin, and son Stephen, and 
appoints his brothers-in-law Nicho- 
las Pyle and Daniel Williamson, his 
Executors, but makes no mention of 
his son John. He gives to son-in-law- 
William Claiton, twenty shillings, and 
to daughter Mary, twenty shillings, to 
be paid to thetn within one year. 
Sarah Bushal in her will, (the name is 
written Bushell, but she only made her 
mark,) dated 2 mo. 9, 1716, proven 
Jan. 18, 1717-8, does not mention the 
names of Martin or Pyle, or in fact any 
but collateral relatives. This is ac- 
counted for by the willof her husband, 
who provided for their children and 
grand-children, leaving his wife only 
a life-estate in his property, adding " I 
doe give her full power to give and dis- 
pose at her discretion Twenty pounds 
at her decease." Sarah Bushell men- 
tions her "kinsman James, son of my 
brother Samuel Webb, formerly of 
Derets, in the parish of Chipnani, in 
the county of Wilts, in the Kingdom 
of Great Britain." Also gives to kins- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



103 



woman Mary Webb, dan. of William 
Webb, in England, ^5, and mentions 
Elizabeth, the youngest dau. of Rich- 
ard Webb, of Birmingham. 

Walter Martin, Junior, died in 1711, 
leaving a wife Barbary and two children 
Mary and Hannah, and mentions in 
his will filed in Philadelphia, also, his 
brother John and sister Elizabeth, his 
father Walter Martin, and his wife's 
uncle Daniel Williamson. His will is 
dated at Chichester, June 26, 1711, 
and proven Sept. 11, 1711. 

Walter Martin, the elder, was mar- 
ried a second time, and probably to 
the widow of John Howell, as he styles 
Daniel Williamson "brother-in-law." 
D. W. was brother-in-law to John How- 
ell, who.se wife was Mary. We know 
that Daniel married Mary Smith, and 
as W^alter's second wife was Mary, there 
is no way of making them brothers in 
law, except by supposing that Mary 
Martin was D. W.'s sister. She died 
intestate about 1723. The will of 
Elizabeth Cranston, given hereafter, 
renders it possible that she was Eliza- 
beth Martin, daughter of Walter, the 
elder. In that case the author is a de- 
scendant of Walter Martin. 

My mother's aunt, Mary Welsh, was 
buried in the graveyard of St. Martin's 
Church, at Marcus Hook, 1824. Ann 
Welsh, a sister of Mary, is said to have 
married, during the Revolution, a Brit- 
ish officer named Drew, and when last 
heard of, he was a Colonel in command 
of Tilbury Fort, England. 

My grandmother, Margaret Welsh, 
widow of William Smith, Jr., during 
her life-time, inherited from her cousin, 
Aunt Marshall of Marcus Hook, some 
real estate situated at that place. My 
mother says, in her girlhood, she and 
her Aunt Mary often visited Aunt Mar- 
shall at Hook. She was the wife of 



David Marshall, and when she married 
him, was the widow of Captain James 
Art. Her maiden name was Armor, 
she was a daughter of Samuel Armor, 
of Marcus Hook, who married Eliza- 
beth Bond. There were three Bond 
girls, Elizabeth above named, Ann my 
great grandmother, and Hannah who 
married Jacob Bankson. Their moth- 
er's maiden name was Elizabeth Mar- 
tin. I believe she died in 1756, and is 
buried in St. Martin's graveyard. Mrs. 
Marshall's brother was the Rev. Sam- 
uel Armor,* a Professor in one of the 
Maryland universities. His health fail- 
ing he accepted a call to Concord 
church, where he died unmarried, and 
his sister inherited his property, and 
when she died no relatives could be 
found in the Armor line, so her rela- 
tives on her mother's side, the Bonds, 
inherited the property, viz : her cousins , 
my grandmother, my aunts Mary Welsh 
and Rebecca Bankson, with whom she 
had always been very intimate. Her 
residence in Marcus Hook was called 
" Liberty Hall," and was the abode of 
a generous hospitality, She always en- 
tertained the clergy ; the Rev. Jacob M. 
Douglass often spoke of it, and Rev. 
Richard D. Hall said there was no 
place like it in Marcus Hook, and that 
when they were gone 1 meaning Mr. and 
Mrs. Marshall,) St. Martin's lost two 
of its best members. I have in my bed- 
room an old mirror with an old fashion- 
ed gilt frame, once belonging to Aunt 
Marshall, a relic of "Liberty Hall" 
and its palmy days. It was the best 
glass then in the house and hung in the 
parlor. My mother says that when she 
and Aunt Mary visited "Aunt Mar- 
shall," they went down in the stage 

*He graduated at the Philadelphia College, 
May 17, 1775, as M. A. Sfe Penna. Mag., 
vol. I, 235. 



104 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



coach, but when grandfather and grand- 
mother Smith went, they drove down 
in their carriage. The residence of 
Mrs. Marshall was on the square, near 
the old market house, which has been 
torn down. Samuel Armor's tomb is 
a large marble slab on a brick paral- 
lelogram. Capt. Art's tomb is quite a 
prominent one, built in the fashion of 
that time, all marble, the slab being 
Italian, and the sides panelled with 
Italian and blue marble, it cost $400. 
The inscription is simply " Captain 
James Art, died May 19, 1805." On 
his left is the head and foot stone of his 
wife, who survived him about twenty 
years. The inscription on her head 
stone is " Ann Marshall, wife of David 
Marshall, Esquire, died August 30th, 
1825." A kw yards distant in the 
"Marshall row," stands the head and 
foot stone of Ann's second husband, 
with this inscription: "David Mar- 
shall, Estpiire, Sept. i2th, 1825." In 
the fall ofthe year 1825, both David and 
his wife were seized with the prevalent 
epidemic of that year, and died twelve 
days apart, the wife first, and his deep 
lamentations over her loss, for the few 
days he survived her, his friends 
thought accelerated his death. 

Thinking that perhaps Mrs. Marshall 
had derived the i)roperty that passed 
to my grandmother from Capt. James 
Art, and that his will would explain the 
matter, I obtained a copy of it, proved 
May 1 1 , 1 805 , but found that after leav- 
ing " a legacy of ;^5o cash to be paid by 
my executrix to James Art, my nephew, 
son of my brother William Art, to be 
propreated for the use of his school- 
ing," he devised all " the rest and re- 
mainder of his estate real and personal 
of what kind or nature soever the same 
may be in the township of Lower Chi- 
chester," iV-c, to his wife, without anv 



estate over to any other person. On 
ordering an examination ofthe records 
at Media, there was found a deed of 
Margaret Smith and Elizabeth Bills, 
on record dated April 8, 1828, convey- 
ing to Gideon Jacques their one undi- 
vided half interest in six lots or pieces 
of land, situated in Lower Chichester, 
" Being the same premises which Ann 
Marshall, wife of David Marshall, de- 
ceased, (formerly Ann Armor,) being 
lawfully seized in fee, died intestate, 
which descended to the said Mar- 
garet Smith and Elizabeth Bills and 
others as her heirs, they being entitled 
to one half of the same and of which 
this deed shows." 

Walter Marten devised to his daugh- 
ter Ann Marten, " my lots that are 
fenced in with posts and rails, with the 
building and orchard on it lying 
bounded on the one side with Bald- 
wins Lots and one the other side with 
Jerimiah Collets Lot fruntingthe River 
on one head and the other Bounded 
on the market place and the street at 
Chichester town, and four acres of 
wood Land to it next to John Bosse's 
wood Land, being part of my wood 
Land at the old Kings road, to be 
eighteen perch wide at each head, be- 
ing bounded between the old road and 
Jonas Sanderlins Land," to her and 
the heirs of her body, if any ; other- 
wise to daus. Elizabeth and Sarah. " I 
give to my daughter Elizabeth Marten 
the two Lots that frunt the market 
place at Chichester town, to her and 
her heirs and assigns forever. Bounded 
on one side with the Lote- with the 
house and orchard on it and Jerimiah's 
Lot and the other side with the Lot 
Late William Thomases andthebacke 
head with other of my Lots And ffour 
acres of wood Land to it next ajoin- 
ing to the Lot of woodland Late Wil- 



HISTORY OF CHESTEK. 



105 



liam Thomas to be Eighteen perches 
wide at both heads Lying between the 
road and Jonas Sanderlin's I^and as 
aforesaid. " " To my Daughter Sarah 
Marten the Great Lot at Chichester 
town * * * Bounded on one side 
with the backe head of John Bosses 
Lots and Jerimiah Collets Lots and on 
the other side with Market street and 
one head bounded one new Street and 
the other head Bounded on the back 
heads of the Lots that ffrunt the mar- 
ket place ; Likewise * * * two 
other Lots ffrunting the said new Street 
with one head and the other head 
bounded [by] Joseph Clouds Lots and 
bounded on one side with Grubs Lots 
and on the other side with the said 
market street : And two acres & a half 
of wood Land be it more or Less, 
being the remainder of what is Left 
when my Daughters Ann & Elizabethes 
is taken out it Lying between theirs, 
frunting the Road as afores** with one 
head & Jonas Sanderlins on the other 
head." "The messuage and planta- 
tation with the house, Barne and out- 
housing and all its Lnprouments and 
appurtenances whatsoever that I now 
live on in the township of Chichester 
being about one hundred and sixty 
acres of Land, be it more or less, I doe 
hearby order my said Executors and 
give them power to sell, ' ' &c. The lot 
on William Claiton's side of the street, 
adjoining to the market place, and two 
acres of woodland to it, to be sold and 
the money divided between Elizabeth 
and Sarah. The money for the plan- 
tation to be put at interest for use of 
son Stephen* during his life and then 
to be divided between his sisters or 
their heirs and the children of son 



* Stephen was non sane memoria, as stated 
in some records. 



Walter. Witnesses, Thomas Linvill, 
Willyam Chandalar. 

The will is signed distinctly " Wal- 
ter Marten." 

Mary Clayton, after the death of 
her husband, William Clayton, Jr., 
married in 1759, Thomas Evan, of 
Goshen. 

Her children by her first husband, 
were: Mary, b. 8 mo. 8, 1710, w. 
Nineveh Carter ; William, Ik 10 mo. 
13, 1 713, VI. Mary Evans; Lydia, b. 
4 mo. 4, 1 716, m. John Spruce and 
Abraham Carter ; Sarah, b. 4 mo. 10, 
1719, m. John Phipps ; Moses, b. 10 
mo. 25, 1722 ; Prudence, /'. 3 mo. 17, 
1725, m. John Ford; Patience, ///. 
Henry Grubb ; David, m. Sarah . 

Nineveh and Abraham Carter were 
sons of Jeremiah and Mary, of Chester 
township. 

The David Marshall mentioned in 
the foregoing sketch must not be con- 
founded with David Marshall, of Mar- 
cus Hook, whose will is on record at 
Media, dated July 30, 1826, and proved 
Sept. 9, 1826, by the subscribing wit- 
nesses Benjamin F. Johnson and John 
Kerlin. His wife's name was Mar- 
garetta, and he mentions a married 
daughter Mary, but does not give her 
husband's name. He leaves his estate 
to his wife for life, after her death to be 
equally divided between his children, 
except Mary, whose portion he devises 
to his son Jesse, in trust for her sole 
and separate use during life, and after 
her death to be equally divided among 
her children. 

My mother's aunt, Mary Welsh, 
(originally Welch,) who lies buried in 
St. Martin's grsye-yzrd, Marcus Hook, 
used to have a large globular pincush- 
ion, around which was a metal band, 
having a chain attached, by which it 
was suspended from her waistband, it 



106 



UlSTORY i)¥ CHESTER. 



was her mother's before her marriage, 
and the hand had engraven on it her 
maiden name, "Ann Bond." The 
mother of Ann Bond (who married 
John Welch, of Philadelphia, my g. 
grandfather), was Elizabeth Cranston^ 
widow, of Chichester, (probably a 
daughter of Walter Martin, of Marcus 
Hook,) who in her will, dated Aug. i, 
1 75 1, proven Sept. i, 1756, mentions 
her children, John Balden (Baldwin), 
James Bond, Ann Welch, Elizabeth i 
Armor, Mary Clark, William Cran- I 
ston, and Hannah Bankson. Exe- | 
cutors. Jacob Bankson and Richard 
Clark. Undoubtedly this was my g. 
g. grandmother. She married _^rs^, 
Joseph Baldwin, of Chester, tailor; 
2d, Joseph liond, of Chichester ; 3d, 
a Cranston. 

Joseph Bond, of Chichester, died 
intestate, leaving a widow, Elizabeth, 
and six children, James, Ann, Eliza- 
beth, Mary, Hannah, and a son George 
who died young. The widow admin- 
istered by letters of Sept. 21, 1734. 
In the accounts which she filed, she 
charges for bringing up three children, 
from Sept. 6, 1734, to Feb. 6, 1736-7. 
It seems reasonable to suppose, that 
her husband died on the first of these 
dates. As she is the one who subse- 
quently married a Cranston, then the 
date of William Cranston's birth, as 
given hereafter (1734), is not cor- 
rect, as she was still Elizabeth Bond 
May 30, 1738; at which time she re- 
l)orted sale of real estate, to pay debts. 
Joseph Bond was a taxable inhabitant 
of Chichester, in 1722. 

In Deed Book E, p. 540, Chester 
County, on Dec. 4, 1735, J^h'"' Bald- 
win, of Philadelphia, joyner, son and 
only issue of Joseph Baldwin, late of 
the township and county of Chester, 
taylor, dec'd, and Elizabeth Bond, of 



Chichester, widow of Joseph Bond, 
and formerly wife of Joseph Baldwin, 
and mother of said John Baldwin, 
convey to Richard Barry, of Chester, 
25 acres, which Thomas Baldwin, late 
of Chester, blacksmith, conveyed Nov. 
20, 1708, to his son, Joseph, who built 
a messuage thereon, and died intestate. 
;^3o paid to John, and 20 shillings to 
his mother. 

The statement hereinbefore made, 
that the estate of Mrs. Marshall de- 
scended to and vested in her relatives 
on the mother's side, because there 
were no descendants in the Armor 
line, is apparently erroneous; but not 
so in reality. The property descend- 
ed to Mrs. Marshall from her mother, . 
who inherited it from her mother, and 
for that reason, it descended, as a mat- 
ter of law, to her heirs on the mother's 
side, she having no brothers or sisters 
to inherit her property. I make this 
explanation because I believe there are 
descendants of other branches of the 
Armor family living in this State. 

Family tradition says, the Bond's 
of our family were Swedes, but I have 
some doubts on the subject ; they may 
have been English. In the list of 
Tydable persons in 1677, will be found 
the names of Andries Boen and Swen 
Boen. Record of Upland Court, '^. 79. 
In the list of Swedes, Acrelius, 190, 
are the names of Anders, Johan and 
Sven Bonde, and at p. 193, Anders 
Bonde and Peter Rambo, are men- 
tioned as still living, having been born 
in Sweden, and "have been here 
fifty-four years," showing that they 
came over in 1639. Mr. Clay says, 
Bonde has become Boon. Acrelius, 
p. 203, mentions "Bond's Island," 
and in a note says, "Bond's Island, 
so-called from the Bonde family, which 
was settled there." Bonde is Swed- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



107 



ish, pronounced Boon-da, meaning a 
peasant or farm- laborer. This pro- 
nunciation accounts for the name be- 
coming Boone. Bond's Island is call- 
ed on the old maps Boon's Island, also 
Minquas Island ; it lies near the south- 
ern boundary of Philadelphia in King- 
sessing, surrounded by small streams, 
"being north-east of Bow creek, and 
formed by Kingsess and Boon's or 
Church cr. flowing into Bow cr. ;" 
so says Wescott, in his History of Phil- 
adelphia, Chaps. IV., XV., and xlvi. 
He also says, " Andries Swanson 
Boone seems to have owned it even 
before the days of Upland Court. An- 
dries Boon took up 200 acres from 
Upland Court, June 14, 168 1. In a 
list of Swedish families (1693), are the 
names of Anders Bonde and Sven 
Bonde, who were precisely the same 
persons called, sometimes, Boone." 
From the old maps, Boon's Island, 
appears to me to be surrounded by 
Bow cr.. Church cr., Minquas kill and 
Darby creek. 

In the will of Jame.j Bond, of Bal- 
timore, dated Aug. 22, 1808, proven 
Jan. 14, 1809, registered at Philadel- 
phia, 1843, Book 16, 326, he devises 
to his beloved wife, &c., except such 
parts as have been heretofore conveyed 
to his daughter, Maria Hatton, the fol- 
lowing tracts of land, that is to say : 
" Part oi James' first attempt, formerly 
Bond's Neck re-surveyed; partof ^/z- 
dreid' s neglect, and part o{ Limb rick." 
Although these designations seem odd 
at this day, they were not uncommon 
at the time the will was made. For 
instance, " Lanigan's Patch," and 
" Dingman's Choice," are somewhat 
famous pieces of land in the interior 
of the State; or to come home, " Am- 
mesland," in Delaware County, is a 
well-known tract. Bond's Neck was 

15 



probably in the vicinity of Bond's 
Island. 

I have a cojjy of a survey and plan 
of the town of Chichester, made by 
Isaac Taylor, Surveyor of Chester 
County, about 1701, on which the 
town lots are all laid down. On the 
east side of the market place are five 
lots ; beginning at the north, is Roger 
Jackson's lot, then the Proprietor's, 
then William Thomas' and two lots 
of Walter Martin ; on the west side 
are two lots laid out, one to Wm. 
Clayton, Jr., the other to Walter Mar- 
tin. It was on one of these latter 
lots that the residence of Ann Mar- 
shall (my grandmother's cousin,) stood, 
opposite the market-house, now torn 
down, all of which my mother dis- 
tinctly remembers, this lot Ann (Arm- 
or) Marshall inherited from her mo- 
ther, Elizabeth (Bond) Armor, who 
inherited them from her mother, Eli- 
zabeth (Martin) Bond, daughter of 
Walter and Jane (Bushal) Martin. On 
the plan referred to, eight dwelling 
houses are depicted on ffront Street, ■ 
facing the river ; to the east of Broad 
Street are the residences of Jer. Collett, 
J. Bond, Collett, and Boss; to the west, 
the residences of William Clayton, J. 
fiflower, a mill, a stable, and the farm 
houses of Richard Bezer and William 
Hughes, (properly Hewes. ) The whole 
lot, except the two lots of Wm. Clay- 
ton, Jr., and Walter Martin, (the latter 
on Discord Lane,)"west of Broad Street, 
north of Discord Lane for some dis- 
tance, is noted as the property of Wil- 
liam Clayton. On the east side of 
Broad Street north of Market Lane, 
are lots of Joseph Cloud, J. Clemson, 
Jackson, Howell, and Walter Martin. 
On the west side of New Street, from 
Discord Lane to Market Lane, the en- 
tire lot is marked " W. Martin," north 



108 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



of Market Lane a lot of Walter Martin ; 
the rest John Grubb ; east of New Street, 
south of Discord Lane is also John 
Gruhb's land ; north of the lane, John 
Humphrey's land. 

The following account of the Cran- 
ston family, formerly of Marcus Hook, 
is exceedingly interesting. It is stated 
that the original settler at Hook of 
this name came from Rhode Island, 
and was a son of (}ov. John Cran- 
ston of that Colony. It is well known 
that a son of Gov. Oanston failed 
in business and went South. In those 
da\s it was deemed a great disgrace 
to fail. And from the tenor of the 
will of Elizabeth Cranston, of Chi- 
chester, proven Sept. i, 1756, regis- 
tered at West Chester, she appears to 
have been his widow, as she mentions 
a son, William Cranston, from whom 
the family of Cranston, now of New- 
port, Delaware, are descended. Wil- 
liam is said to have been born in 1 734, 
and died in 181 1, aged 77 years. His 
father dying when -he was about 12 
years of age. It is quite probable that 
he was born at a later period, perhaps 
in 1743, as Elizabeth Cranston was the 
widow Bond, May 30, 1 738. He (Wm. 
Cranston) married Mrs. Ann Ford, a 
widow, with three sons and one daugh- 
ter ; her maiden name was Johnson. 
She had two sisters, Rachel, married 
to Adam Prince, and Betty to a Lamp- 
high. Mrs. Ford's children by her first 
marriage, were, Benjamin Ford, who 
settled in New Jersey, Jacob and Wil- 
liam, in Philadelphia, and Elizabeth, 
;//. 1st, Robert Fergueson, 2d, John 
Keys, of Chester. Mrs. Ford's bro- 
ther, Humphrey Johnson, has descen- 
dants who reside in Chester, or its 
vicinity. The Fords were ship-carpen- 
ters. 

William and Ann Ford Cranston's 



children were, Benjamin, died aged 
21 years; Simon, Ann and Hannah. 
W^illiam Cranston was a ship-carpen- 
ter, at Hook, and served his appren- 
ticeship there with Simon Sherlock, 
after whom he named one of his sons, 
who afterwards, in early life, became 
a ship-carpenter, at Hook ; but later 
removed to Stanton, Del., where he 
married Mary Marshall, dau. of Wil- 
liam and Mary (Tatnall), formerly of 
Concord, who had settled near Stan- 
ton and purchased a mill property 
there. Mrs. Marshall's parents, the 
Tatnall's, lived on the Brandywine. 
She was born 8 mo, 4, 1775. The 
Marshalls were Quakers. 

Simon Cranston, was born 11 mo. 
10, 1768, died I mo. 10, 1856. The 
following is extracted from a Wilming- 
ton paper. '^ Ati Old Citizen Gone. — 
Simon Cranston, died at his residence 
near Stanton, last month, at the ad- 
vanced age of eighty-eight years. He 
was a native of Delaware County, Pa., 
and his parents resided near Marcus 
Hook, which place was fired on by 
the British fleet, and he with others 
gathered up the bullets which had fallen 
on the ground, or been driven into the 
trees. In coming into Delaware, he 
located near Stanton, improved his 
farm, reared a large family, accumu- 
lated wealth, enjoyed in a large de- 
gree the respect and esteem of his 
neighbors, and has gone down to the 
grave full of years." 

The children of Simon and Mary 
Cranston were, William, I). 7 mo. 16, 
1797, jn. Mary Johnson; Joseph, b. 
8 mo. 25, 1799, '''• Hannah Kelly; 
Mary Ann, w. Samuel P. Johnson ; 
Eliza, />. 8 mo. 27, 1805, m. Alexan- 
der Armstrong; James, b. 9 mo. 29, 
1807, in. Jan. 28, 1836, Eleanor Arm- 
i strong, dau. of John and Elizabeth, /^ 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



109 



Feb. 28, 1814; Samuel, b. 10 mo. 7, 
1809; Sarah, b. 11 mo. 9, 1811, ;//. 
Ellis P. Wilkinson ; Benjamin, b. 8 
■mo. 23, 1814, m. Hannah Wilkinson. 
James and Eleanor (Armstrong) 
Cranston, had issue, Mary Elizabeth, 
b. June 2, 1837, ///. Robert C. Justis ; 
Ella Frances, b. Aug. 28, 1839 ; John 
A. b. Jan. i, 1843, ^'^- Martha Church- 
man ; Samuel Marshall, b. July 7, 
1846, m. Ellen F. Lyman ; and Edwin 
James, b. Oct. 4, 1847; and Sarah El- 
kn and Ida Paulina, who died young, 
unmarried. The Armstrongs came 
from Ireland, and were purchasers 
from Penn of land in Christiana Hun- 
dred, Del., on which their descendants 
still reside. 

The incidents connected with the 
attack of the British fleet on Marcus 
Hook, as related by Simon Cranston, 
are worthy of preservation. He was 
quite young, but the events made a 
powerful impression upon him. He 
says: — "The fleet lay opposite the 
town, and the Continental' Light-horse 
Cavalry were stationed back of the 
village. My parents' dwelling lay 
between the two forces. The fleet 
fired on the troops, and the British 
sent a boat ashore, and an oflficer 
told my mother to take her children 
into the cellar; in her fright she took 
them outside of the house and down 
into the cellar in that way exposed to 
the flying balls." William Cranston 
finding his family so much exposed at 
Marcus Hook, thought to seek safety 
by flight ; so after burying all his val- 
uables, he removed to Chadd's Ford, 
where he soon found himself and fam- 
ily surrounded by the opposing British 
and American armies, and Simon had 
the great honor, one night, of sharing 
his bed with Washington. When the 
British were in their neighborhood, 



they came and offered money for com- 
forts : but of course the Americans 
dare not take any money, so the British 
helped themselves and threw down the 
money. They were not so particular 
after the battle of Brandywine. 

In the Providence Gazette of Oct. 
3, 1813, will be found a Genealogical 
sketch of the families of Cranston, Craw- 
ford, &c. , prepared by the Hon. T. Fos- 
ter, which is very curious. I insert here a 
certificate of the Lyon King of Arms 
of Scotland, as to the " Predecessors 
of the Cranstons," viz: 

"To all and sundry persons whom 
these presents do or may concern : I, sir 
Alexander Areskine of Cambo, Knight 
and Baronet, Lyon Kingof Arms of that 
part of Great Britian called Scotland 
and Isles and Dependencies thereof, 
Sendeth Greetings : — Whereas I have 
taken to my consideration the applica- 
tion made to me as Lyon King of Arms 
aforesaid, in name and behalf of Sam- 
uel Cranston, sometime Governor of 
Rhode Island on the coast of New Eng- 
land, son to the deceased John Cran- 
ston, sometime Governor of said Island, 
of Scottish extract for an authentic Di- 
ploma or Certificate of his genealogy 
and descent ; of the Coat of Arms pro- 
per for him ; and having made all in- 
quiry into said matter,do therefore here- 
by certify and declare, that the said 
John Cranston was lawful son of James 
Cranston Master of Arts and one of the 
Chaplains of his late Sacred Majesty 
King Charles 1st, of ever blessed memo- 
ry, which James Cranston was lawful son 
to John Cranston of Bool, and Chris- 
tian his wife, daughter to Sir Robert 
Stewart, predecessor to the Earl of Fra- 
quair, which John was a younger son 
of James Cranston, brother to John, 
Lord Cranston and Elizabeth his wife, 
daughter to Francis Stewart, Earl of 



110 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



BothwcU, and wliicli James Cranston 
was son to William, Lord Cranston and 
Helen his wife, daughter of Lindsay, 
predecessor to the Earl of Crawford. 
And the Ensign Armorial of the said 
Samuel Cranston are matriculated and 
recorded in the Registers of my office, 
and thus blazoned, viz : — Gules, three 
Cranes, argent, with a bordure embat- 
tled of the second, above the Shield and 
Helmet befitting his degree, with man- 
tle gules doubling, argent, and on a 
wreath of his colors is set for his Crest, 
a crane, passant. Motto — D//m Vigilo 
Curo, which Coat above blazoned I 
ratify, assign and confirm to the said 
Samuel Cranston and his heirs in time 
coming, as their proper Coat of Arms 
and Bearing. 

In testimony whereof, I have sub- 
scribed these presents with my hand, 
and have caused to be appended my 
Seal of Office hereto, at Edinburgh the 
29th day of June, 1724. 

Alex.-vnder Areskine, Lyon." 

See Heraldic Journal, 3 vol. pp. 59, 
60-1, for a copy of the memorial stone 
of Gov. John Cranston of Rhode Island, 
with some remarks as to his ancestry. 

Westcott in his history of Philadel- 
phia, chap. 416, says: — " Adolph 
Ulrick Wertmuller, a native of Sweden , 
after having i)ainted in Europe, came 
to America, at the age of forty-four 
years, in the year 1794, and settled at 
l'hiladeli)hia. He brought with him 
someof hisi)aintings, which were great- 
ly admired. President Washington sat 
to him. He re-copied, it is said, for 
James Hamilton, the portraits of the 
Hamilton family, and then Hamilton 
destroyed the originals. Wertmuller 
went back to Europe in 1796, where 
he lost money by the failure of a great 
house in Stockholm. He came l)ack 
to Philadelphia in uSoo, and brought 



with him his celebrated i)icture of 
Dance, which, being a nude figure, was 
exhibited only to such as might apply 
to view it ; and from the exhibitions 
Wertmuller received a handsome in- 
come. He remained in Philadelphia 
Some years, married a lady of Swedish 
descent, who brought him considerable 
property, and finally removed to Mar- 
cus Hook, Delaware County, where he 
lived until his death, in 1812. His 
pictures were sold at auction shortly 
after his death and brought good prices. 
For a copy of his Danae five hundred 
dollars were paid." 

In an article in the U. S. Gazette, 
Nov. 7, 1817, it is said : — '' A^ Marcus 
Hook, is the place memorable as the 
encampment of our Martial youth dur- 
ing the threatened attack of the enemy 
on Philadeli:)hia, a party was formed to 
pay it a visit. The camp was laid out 
about eighty perches from the Main 
road, on an elevated spot, but now af- 
fords nothing worth describing. We 
stopt awhile at the public house ' Spread 
Eagle,'' printed on the sign, but there 
was no appearance of the bird, he had 
probably been frightened away by the 
military preparations in the neighl)or- 
hood. Marcus Hook was anciently 
called Chichester, but the name was 
changed by Wm. Penn at the recpiest 
of the inhabitants. Why it received 
its present name I found no one who 
could inform me. The place has three 
taverns, a market house, and an E])is- 
copal church and two or three stores, 
but does not seem to be flourishing." 

NoTK. — The name of the present Rector of 
St. Martin's Church, is the Rev. GusTAVus 
Ci.ACOETT Bird, and not I-evi Bird, as giyen 
in the list on page 96. 

XII. 

In 1699, William Penn and his 
family left England for America, in- 



IIISTOKY OF CHESTER. 



Ill 



tending to take up his permanent resi- 
dence in his Province. He arrived in 
the Delaware in November, and landed 
at Chester, where he passed the night 
at the residence of Lydia Wade, the 
widow of Robert, meeting there Thom- 
as Story, who had just returned from 
Virginia. Before going on board of 
his vessel in the morning, he visited the 
town, crossing to the east side of the 
creek in a boat. As he landed, some 
of the young men of the town, who, 
in defiance of the orders of the town 
authorities, had procured two small 
cannon, commenced to fire a salute in 
honor of the visit of the Proprietary. 
One of them, B. Bevan, was severely 
wounded by a premature discharge of 
one of the pieces, having inserted the 
cartridge before it had been sponged 
out after the previous discharge. His 
left arm was so badly injured, that it 
had to be amputated, and he died in 
the following April. The Proprietor's 
cash-book shows, that he paid all the 
expenses of attending, nursing and 
burying the unfortunate youth. 

William Penn, was a tall slender 
man, remarkably graceful, and not at 
all like what Benjamin West represents 
him in his picture. He dressed in the 
costume of a gentleman of his period, 
and did not wear the style of dress in 
which West and others have repre- 
sented him, that being the dress of a 
century later. 

It was during this visit of the Pro- 
prietary to America, that he granted 
the following 

Charter to the Borough of Chester. 
" Preamble. — William Penn, true and abso- 
lute Proprietary and Governor in Chief of the 
Province of Pennsylvania & Territories there- 
unto belonging. To All to whom these pre- 
ents shall come sends Greeting. Whereas, 
in my first Regulation and Division of the 
('(•unties of this Province, I thought tit to 



order, That the Townsted or Village there 
having the name of Upland, should be called 
Chester, which I thereupon constituted the 
Shire-town of the County of Chester, and or- 
dered and appointed all my Courts of Judica- 
ture for the affairs of that County to be there 
held and kept, and the County Gaol or Prison 
to be and remain there forever. And Where- 
as, about the same time, or soon after, for the 
Encouragement of the said Town, I was pleas- 
ed to grant unto my ancient friend, yohn Sim- 
cock, in behalf of himself and others the In- 
habitants of the said Place, the Privilege of a 
Market, to be there weekly held and kept. 
After which the said Inhabitants, upon their 
special Instance, did also obtain from my late 
Lieutenant Governor and Council a Grant for 
two Fairs to be held in said Town yearly. All 
which the inhabitants of said Town, and of 
the adjacent Parts of said County of Chester, 
having humbly besought me to confirm unto 
them, together with such additional Privileges 
& Franchises as I may think fit or requisite 
for the better Encouragement of the Settlers 
& Regulation of trade therein. Now Know 
YE, that I favoring the just and reasonable 
Request of said Inhabitants, have of my own 
free Will erected, and do by these Presents for 
me, my Heirs & Successors, erect the said 
Town into a Burrough, which Town & Bur- 
rough shall extend from the River Delaware 
two miles backwards into the woods ; and 
shall be bounded Eastward by the West side 
of Ridley creek, and Westward by the East 
side of Chester creek, to the said extent of two 
miles backward from the River, and shall ever 
hereafter be called Chester. And I further 
will, that the Streets, Landing & Market place 
in said Town shall forever hereafter be, con- 
tinue and remain, as they are already, and 
have lately been laid out and modelled & ap- 
proved by me and my Council, then sitting at 
New Castle. 

"And I do hereby name and constitute 
Jasper Yeates, Ralph Fishbourn, Paul Saun- 
ders and Robert Barber, to be the present 
Burgesses, and James Lownes, High Consta- 
ble of the said Burrough, who shall continue 
until the loth day of the 1st month next, on 
which Day, as also on the same Day in the 
same month yearly afterwards forever, it shall 
and may be lawful to and for the Freeholders 
and Housekeepers of said Town and Burrough 
puhlickly to meet in some convenient Place, 



112 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



within the said Town, to be by them appoint- 
ed for that Purpose, and then and there nom- 
inate, elect and choose by the Ballot of the 
Inhabitants of the said Town, fit and able 
men to be Burgesses, and High Constable, 
with such other officers, as by the Burgesses 
and Freeman shall be judged needful for 
assisting and serving the Burgesses in manag- 
ing the Affairs of the said Burrough, and keep- 
ing of the Peace therein from time to time. 
And the Burgess first chosen in said Elec- 
tions, shall be called Chief Burgess of the said 
Town. 

" And I will and ordain, That all the said 
Burgesses for the time being shall be, and are 
hereby empowered and authorized to be Con- 
servators of the Peace within the said Bur- 
rough, and shall have Power by themselves 
and upon their own view, without any law 
proceeding, to remove all Nuisances and En- 
croachments out of said streets as they shall 
sec occasion. With power also to arrest, im- 
prison and punish Rioters and Breakers of the 
Peace, and to bind them and all other Offen- 
ders and Persons of evil fame to the Peace or 
good Behavior, as fully and effectually as any 
of the Justices of the Peace of the said County 
can do, and return or bring the Recogniz- 
ances by them to be taken to the Court of 
Quarter Sessions for the said County. And 
that tlie said Chief Burgess from time to time, 
shall by virtue of these Presents, without any 
further or other Commission, be one of the 
Justices of the Peace, and one of the Justices 
of the County Court and Quarter Sessions, 
Oyer and Terminer and Gaol Delivery in and 
for the said County of Chester. And shall 
have full Power and Authority with the rest of 
the said County-Justices, or a Quorum of them, 
or l)y liimself, where the Laws of this Province, 
&c., directs one Justice to award Process, and 
to hold pleas cognizable by and before the 
Justices of the said County of Chester, from 
time to time. 

" And I do hereby grant and appoint, that 
the Sheriff and Clerk of the Courts of the said 
County of Chester for the time being, if not 
residents in said Burrough, shall appoint and 
constitute sufficient Deputies, who shall from 
time to lime reside or constantly attend in said 
Town of Chester, to perform the duties of their 
respective offices. But before any of said 
Burgcs.^es, Constal)les or oilier officers, shall 
take U| on llicm the Execution of their resjiec- 



tive offices, they shall subscribe to the Decla- 
ration and Profession of their Christian Belief 
according to the late Act of Parliament made 
in the first year of the Reign of King Wil- 
liam, and the late Queen Mary, entitled ' An 
Act for exempting their Majesties Protestant 
Subjects dissenting from the Church of Eng- 
land, from Penalties of certain Eaws.' And 
they that are to be newly elected for Burges- 
ses, Constables and other officers, from time to 
time, shall be Attested for due Execution of 
their respective offices, and shall subscribe the 
said Declaration and Profession of Belief be- 
fore the old Burgesses, or such of them as go 
off and are not again Chosen in the new Elec- 
tions. But in case the old Burgesses are all 
chosen by the new Elections, then they shall 
have power, and they are hereby empowered 
and qualified to act upon their former Attests 
and Qualifications. And I do further grant 
and ordain, that the High Constable of the 
said Burrough for the Time being shall be 
Clerk of the Market, who shall and may have 
Assize of Bread, Wine, Beer, Wood and other 
things; and to execute and perform all things 
belonging to the office of Clerk of the Market 
within the said Town & Burrough of Chester. 
"And I do for me, my Heirs & Assigns, 
grant unto the said Burgesses & their Succes- 
sors, That if any of the Inhabitants of the said 
Town and Burrough shall be hereafter elected 
to the office of Burgess or Con.stable as afore- 
said, and having notice of his or their Election, 
shall refuse to undertake and execute that 
office to which he is so chosen, it shall ])e 
lawful for the Burgess or Burgesses then act- 
ing, to impose moderate Fines upon the Re- 
fusers, so as the Burgess's Fine exceed not 
Ten Pounds, and the Constable's Fine Five 
Pou7ids ; to be levied by Distress and Sale, by 
Warrant under the Hand & Seal of one or 
more of the Burgesses, or by other lawful ways, 
to the Use of the said Town. And in such 
cases it shall be lawful for the said Inhabitants 
forthwith to choose others to supply the Defects 
of such Refusers. And it shall and may be 
lawful for the said Burgesses and Constable 
for the Time being, to summon and assemble 
Town-meetings from time to time as often as 
they shall find Occasion. At which Meeting 
they may make such Ordinances and Rules 
(not repugnant or inconsistent with the Inws 
of this Province), as to the greater part of the 
Town-meeting shall seem necessary and conve- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



113 



nient for the good Government of the said Town. 
And the same Rules & Ordinances to put in 
Execution, and the same to revoke, alter and 
make anew, as occasion shall require. And 
also to impose such Mulcts and Amerciaments 
upon Breakers of said Ordinances as to the 
Makers thereof shall be thought reasonable; 
to be levied as above directed in cases of Fines, 
to the use of the Town, without rendering any 
account thereof to me, my Heirs or Assigns, 
with Power also to said Meetings to mitigate 
or release the said Fines and Mulcts upon the 
submission of the parties. 

"And I do further grant to the said Bur- 
gesses and inhabitants of the aforesaid Town 
and Burrough of Chester, that they and their 
successors shall and may forever hereafte'r hold 
and keep within the said town in every week 
of the year, one Market in the fifth day of the 
week, called Thursday: And also two Fairs 
therein every year, the first of them to begin 
the fifth day of the third month called May, 
and to continue that day and two days after ; 
and the other said Fair "to begin the fifth day 
of October, and to continue to the seventh day 
of the same month, in such place and places 
in said town as the Burgesses shall from time 
to time order and appoint. 

" And I do further grant, that neither I -nor 
my Heirs or Assigns shall or will seize any of 
the Liberties or Franchises hereby granted, 
nor take any Advantage against said Burrough 
for non-using or waiving the present Execution 
of any of the Powers or Privileges hereby 
granted. 

"In witness whereof I have hereunto set 
my Hand and caused my Great Seal to l)e 
affixed. Dated the one and thirtieth Day of 
October, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
seven hundred and one, 1 701. 

William Penn." 

Recorded in Patent Book, vol. ii., p. 138. 

Chester was incorporated as a Bo- 
rough by Act of Assembly of March 
5, 1795. See Law Book No. 5, p. 
387. And for all acts relative thereto, 
see BeiteV s Digest of Corporations, 
under the head of Boroughs. 

By act of Assembly of Feb. 14, 1866, 
Chester was incorporated as a City. 
':^eQ Pamphlet Latas of 1S66, p. 30, «S:c. 



Under that Act, Abraham Blakeley, 
William Hinkson, John O. Deshong, 
George Baker, William Frick, Crosby 
P. Morton, Joshua P. Eyre, John H. 
Barton, Abraham R. Perkins, Fre- 
derick Fairlamb, Samuel Ulrick and 
William B. Reaney, were named Com- 
missioners for certain purposes enu- 
merated therein, and the citizens were 
authorized to elect a Common Coun- 
cil of fifteen person. 

In regard to the mooted question, 
whether there ever was a Swedish 
church erected at Upland ? I think I 
may safely say, in view of all the evi- 
dence on the subject, that there never 
was such a structure built at that place. 
Had there ever been one, the Rev. J. 
C. Clay, D. D., would have naturally 
referred to it in his "Annals of the 
Swedes on the Delaware." And it 
would have been mentioned in the 
conveyance of the Church lands at 
Chester to David Lloyd, in 1693, by 
the Church Wardens of the Swedish 
congregation at Wiccacoe, for in all old 
deeds of that time, all the improve- 
ments are carefully set forth; in veri- 
fication thereof, I need only refer to 
the conveyance of Hans Jurianson 
Kien to his brother Jonas Jur. Kien, 
on the 2 2d of March, 1698, herein- 
before fully set out. But what settles 
the question in my mind, is the order 
made at a special Court, held by the 
Governor at New Castle, in 1675, 
" That the church at Tinicum Island 
do continue as heretofore ; that it serve 
for Uplands and parts adjacent." 
Hazard's Annals, p. 417. There 
was therefore no church edifice at 
Upland in 1675. It may be observ- 
ed, that the Swedish Church is Epis- 
copal in its order of Christian minis- 
try, and holds to a liturgical service. 

We know that there was a Swedish 



114 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



minister at Lapland, tlic Rc\-. Laurence 
Lock, /. e., Laurentius Carolus, who 
came over to America in the time of the 
Swedish Governor, Lieut. Col. Printz, 
and officiated in the Swedish churches 
at Tinicum and Christina. He died 
in 1668, after having served as min- 
ister and schoohiiaster for 26 years, 
in the settlements on the Delaware. 
There was no necessity for a church 
at Upland. The number of its in- 
habitants would not have justified the 
erection of one ; for the number of 
taxables in 1677, was only seventeen, 
and but seven of them were Swedes ; 
besides this the Swedes were eminently 
a maritime people, who preferred tra- 
velling by water to any other mode. 
The church at Tinicum, was only a 
short sail or row from Upland, especi- 
ally when the wind or tide was favor- 
able. It is quite probable, that the 
Rev. Mr. Lock held occasional reli- 
gious services at Upland in private 
houses, or in the " House of Defence," 
just as the Friends did before they 
erected their meeting-house in 1693. 
I am aware, that the Duke' s Laws 
concerning the public worship of God 
were in force here in 1677, which di- 
rected a church should be built in 
in each parish, of a size to accommo- 
date 200 persons ; but evidently Up- 
land was not a parish separate from 
Tinicum. 

The block-houses which the Swedes 
erected for refuge and defence, were 
often used as places in which to hold 
religious services. So that as long as 
the "House of Defence" remained, 
there was no use of erecting a church 
at Upland. Clay, in speaking of the 
original church at Wicaco, says, at 
page 57, in a note: "This church 
was originally a l)l()ck-house. It is 
not known when it was ])uilt ; but it 



was first used as a place of worship in 
1677. It had loop-holes, and occu- 
pied the site of the present church." 
He gives a picture of the rude struc- 
ture, or block-house. No doubt the 
" House of Defence" at Upland, was 
a "fort," of a like character and ap- 
])earance ; as the representations of 
nearly all like erections of defence 
built about the same period, bear a 
strong resemblance to each other, as 
if they were constructed from the same 
model. 

Lewis, in his History of Chester 
County, says: "The Swedes had a 
church upon Tinicum Island, to which 
they came in canoes from New Castle, 
and other places along the Delaware, 
both above and below the island. 
They then went from place to place, 
principally by water. There was a 
store at Darby, which they often visit- 
ed, and always in their^anoes; though 
the distance by water was twice that 
by land." 

In Dr. Perry's Collections, vol. ii., 
(Pennsylvania,) p. 503, he states : " At 
New Castle the church is built on a 
plot of ground where formerly was a 
fort." I quote this as further evidence 
that the Swedish forts or block-houses, 
were used for churches and other pub- 
lic purposes, more especially after they 
became useless as a means of defence 
against the savages and other foes. 

There is no record in existence, that 
we know of, which shows where the 
first Episcopal congregation assembled 
in the town of Chester. Nor can the 
precise date be determined, conclu- 
sively, when the erection of the old 
church of St. Paul's was commenced, 
but it was finished in July, 1 702. The 
church records do not go back of the 
14th of April, 1 704. The Rev. Richard 
I). Hall, when pastor of the church, 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



115 



wrote a sketch of its history, and fixes 
the probable date of its erection ' ' about 
the year 1650 or '60, and that the 
Swedes were probably the first found- 
ers." I am sorry to say of my old 
pastor, that his statement shows a 
want of proper research, concerning 
the matter about which he was writ- 
ing. We know that there was no 
church edifice in Upland in 1675, 
from the order of the Governor, Sir 
Edmund Andross, read at the Court 
at New Castle, on the 23rd day of 
May, 1675. However, Mr. Hall 
evinces, very properly, some doubt 
upon the subject of his early dates, 
and says, "The Swedes may have 
erected a church in 1682." This 
latter guess no doubt grew out of the 
old Chester tradition, that "James 
Sandilands, who died in 1692, gave 
the lot to the congregation to erect the 
old church on, and that he was one of 
the original founders." But this is 
also an error. Yet there are good 
grounds for the story ; for it was his 
son James, to whom the church is so 
much indebted for his liberality, as 
has been heretofore stated, and will 
be hereinafter shown. 

Dr. Smith says, pp. 202, 208 and Ap- 
pendix F., writing of the year 1701 : 
" Evidence of the existence of Episco- 
pal organizations within the limits of 
our county, now begin to dawn upon 
us. In the History of the Society for 
the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 
Parts, we are told that ' The Swedes 
and Dutch who settled in this Province 
(Pennsylvania) had some Ministers 
among them ; but the English had none 
till the year 1 700, when the Rev. Mr. 
Evans was sent over to Philadelphia, 
by Bishop Crompton.' After describ- 
ing the labors and success of Mr. 
Evans, the author goes on to say: 'A 



hearty love and zeal for religion spread 
so wide, that there arose soon several 
congregations in other parts of the 
country. Mr. Evans was forced to di- 
vide his labors among them, as often 
as he conveniently could, till they might 
be formed into proper Districts, and 
the Ministers sent over to them. He 
went frequently to Chester, Chichester 
and Concord, to Montgomery and 
Radnor, each about 20 miles distant 
from Philadelphia, and to Maidenhead 
in New Jersey, 40 miles distant. This 
traveling was both fatiguing and ex- 
pensive, yet he frequently visited those 
places, being determined by all means, 
to lose none of those he had gained.' 
There is no notice of a Church edifice 
existing at either of the places named, 
except Philadelphia." 

In 1704 the Society received a let- 
ter from the vestry at Chester in Penn- 
sylvania, full of religious sentiment, 
"that they did bless God who had put 
it into the hearts of so many charitable 
persons, to engage in the great work 
of promoting the salvation of such as 
were so widely removed from all con- 
venience of Divine worship as they 
were, till the Christian charity of the 
Society, not only procured a Minis- 
ter for them, but also supported him. 
This truly was absolutely necessary, for 
though in some parts of that province, 
and particularly in and about Philadel- 
phia, abundance of souls were daily 
added to the church, yet the number of 
this parish being small, and the charge 
of building their church, then not quite 
finished, together with the great scarci- 
ty of money among them since the war 
with Spain, had quite disenabled them 
from taking that weight from the Soci- 
ety, which otherwise they would have 
willingly done. They never before had 
grounds to hope the Gospel would be 



116 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



projiagatcd in these al)ove all other 
foreign jjarts, till they found themselves 
the subjects of the Society's care." 

' ' The people of Chester county show- 
ed very early zeal to have the Church of 
England worship settled among them. 
This county is so called because most of 
the first inhabitants of it came from 
Cheshire in England. Chester the chief 
town of the county is finely situate on the 
river Delaware, at that place three miles 
over; the Road forshipi)ing here is very 
commodious and safe, and is so large 
that a Royal Navy might ride there. 
The people here were stirred up by Mr. 
Evans' preaching, to engage in build- 
ing a church. They erected a very 
good Brick Fabric, one of the neatest 
on the continent, and completed it in 
July, 1702, at the sole expense of the 
private subscriptions of the church 
members ; it was opened on St. Paul's 
day, and therefore called St. Paul's, 
and Mr. George Keith preached the 
first sermon in it. The Society ap- 
pointed Rev. Mr. Nichols Missionary 
in 1703. He acquainted the Society 
in 1 704, that he found the people very 
well inclined to the Church of England, 
and recommended them earnestly to 
the Society's care on account of their 
good disposition, tho' they had not any 
fixed minister till now. The people 
made a subscription of jQdo a year'tow- 
ards Mr. Nichols' support, and became 
very regular and constant at divine wor- 
ship. Mr. Nichols said he did not 
want for a considerable congregation 
on his first arrival, notwithstanding his 
being seated in the midst of Quakers, 
and ascribes this advantage to the in- 
dustrious preaching of the Society of 
Itinerant Missionaries, the Rev. Mr. 
Keith and Mr. Talbot, who had pre- 
pared the people very much by their 
labors. Mr. Jasper Yates and Mr. 



James Sandilands (the younger) two 
worthy gentlemen of this place, deserve 
particular mention here. They were 
the principal promoters of the building 
of this church. Mr. Thomas Powell 
also gave a valuable piece of ground for 
a Minister's garden (the lot on which 
the new church now stands) the par- 
ishioners contributing the rest ; and as 
.soon as the outside was completed, the 
inside was beautified mostly at the ex- 
pense of those who frequented it, and 
adorned with decent furniture, a hand- 
some Pulpit and Pews." — See Humph- 
ries Historical Account of the Incor- 
porated Society for Propagating the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts, to the year 
1728 — London, 1730, pp. 151, 152 
and 154. 

Mr. Nichols continued in charge of 
St. Paul's till 1708, when he removed 
to Maryland. The Rev. George Ross, 
from New^ Castle, succeeded him, " in 
July, 1708, by y^ Bishop of London's 
leave, and about two years later he 
went for England, and having his de- 
sire returned to Chester in Septem- 
ber, 1 71 1," and remained in charge of 
Chester, Marcus Hook and Concord 
churches until 1714, when the Rev. 
John Humphreys, another of the Soci- 
ety's missionaries, was placed in charge 
of the Chester church. At this time 
the congregation numbered about one 
hundred and fifty. 

The following extracts are taken from 
the Journal of the Travels of the Rev. 
George Keith, A. M., London, 1706. — 
" Sunday, Jan. 24, 1702 (1703 N. S.), 
I preached at Philadelphia, on Mat- 
thew, V. 17, both in the forenoon and 
afternoon, Mr. Evans; the minister, 
having that day been at Chester, in 
Pennsylvania, to accompany Mr. Tal- 
bot who was to preach the first ser- 
mon in the church after it was built." 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



117 



— p. 59. " Feb. 7, Sunday, I preached 
at Chester, in Pennsylvania, in the new 
church, on Matthew xvi. 18. Aug. 2, 
I came to Vpland, alias Chester, by 
Delaware river, Mr. Talbot having gone 
before me to preach there, Aug. i. — 
Aug. 3, I preached in the church at 
Chester, a second sermon, on Titus ii. 
II, 12, 13, 14, and had a considerable 
auditory. We were kindly entertain- 
ed at the house of Jasper Yeates, there. ' ' 
— P- 73. "Sunday, April 9, 1704, 
I preached at Chester on John iv. 24, 
being my last sermon there." — p. 80. 

Mr. Keith enumerates five Church 
of England congregations in Pennsyl- 
vania and Delaware " who are supplied 
with Ministers and have convenient 
churches. ' ' St. Paul's is the only one 
so circumstanced in Chester county. 
Mr. Keith had formerly been a preach- 
er in the Society of Friends, and after 
having created a division in that soci- 
ety was disowned as a member. There- 
upon he went back to England, became 
an Episcopalian, took orders in that 
church, and returned to America as a 
Missionary in the society for the propa- 
gation of the Gospel in foreign parts. 

The Rev. John Talbot preached the 
first sermon in St. Paul's church' in 
Chester, and not Mr. George Keith, 
as before stated by Humphries. See 
Papers relating to the History of the 
Church in Pennsylvafiia, 1680 to 1778, 
pp. 502, 511, edited by Wm. Stevens 
Perry, D. D. In the same work, p. 
78, &c., there is an account of the 
building of the church at Chester, 
enclosed in Mr. Ross' letter of June 
21, 1 714, to the Society for Propa- 
gating the Gospel, in which the same 
error occurs. This account states : — 

"This Church being 49 foot in length & 26 
in lireadth, was founded l)y divineprovidencein 
July, 1 702 ; & on St. Paul's day after was open- 



ed with the usual sollemnity of a Sermon w<^^ 
was preached by ye Rev'd Mr. George Keith, 
then Missionary from the Hon'ble Society, for 
the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts. 

" The ground on which this small but com- 
pact fabrick of brick is built was foi-merly a 
burying place belonging to a Colony of Swedes, 
the first Inhabitants of this Province from Eu- 
rope, which Colony had likewise a Church 
[referring to the House of Defence, without 
doubt] endowed with a valuable Glebe not far 
from this place of burial, but of this building 
there remains no sign at this day : and y* Glebe 
land was irreligiously sold by some Swedes 
under y« name of Churchwardens to a powerful 
Quaker [David Lloyd], who now plows and 
sows it & disposes of it at his pleasure, but 'tis 
hoped his precarious title will be one day or 
other inquired into & the Church restored to 
her just right again. 

" In this Swedish Dormitory, James Sande- 
lands of Chester, (or as it was first called, Up- 
lands,) merchant, a man of good reputation in 
the country was on account of affinity interr- 
ed to keep up the memory of this founder of a 
growing family; 'twas agreed on amongst his 
relations that his grave, as also that of kindred 
and family who were or might be buried there 
should be distinguished & set apart from the 
rest of the burying ground by "an enclosure or 
wall of stone. This design was no sooner 
formed & noised abroad, but 'twas happily 
suggested by a projecting fellow in Town, 
that if it seemed good to Mr. Sandeland's re- 
lations, the intended stone -wall about the place 
of his interment might be with somewhat more 
charges, carried up & formed into a small 
Chapel or Church. 

" This new motion was well liked of by y® 
s* relations & encouraged by every body in 
the neighborhood that wished well to the 
Church of England & longed to see its primi- 
tive worship set up amongst them, but they 
who put life into this proposal & prosperously 
brought it to pass were Jasper Yeates, Mer- 
chant of Chester, and James Sandelands, son 
to the above named M"^ Sandelands, the latter 
of which two Gentlemen, besides other gifts 
gave some land to enlarge the Church yard, 
but the former, to wit, M*" Yeates, a zealous 
assertor of our Constitution in Church and State, 
must be allowed to have been the main pro- 
moter of the founding of St. Paul's upon Del- 
aware. It would be too long particularly to 



118 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



relate the several benefactors who contributed 
towards the building of the s^ Church . Those 
of its Parishionei-s who were chief helpers to 
carry on the work were Jeremy Collett, Jno. 
Ilannum, Menry Pierce, Ralph Pile & Thos. 
Barnsly, but especially Thos. Powell, y* princi- 
pal supporter of the Ministry here, for y« fur- 
ther encourajjing of which in the place, he has 
of late given a valuable piece of ground for a 
Minister's house, garden and other conveni- 
ences too long to be inserted in this paper. 
There is yet one generous Patron and bene^ 
factor to y« whole infant Church in North 
America, 'twere a crime to forget or conceal ; 
we mean The Hon''''' Col' Fran. Nicholson, 
Esq'', whose liberality to this & other churches 
on this main deserves y" highest encomium. 
We may safely say no man parted more freely 
w"" his money to promote the Interest of the 
Church in these parts, nor contributed so uni' 
versally towards y" erection of Christian .Syn- 
agogues in different and distant plantations of 
America. 

" The Church of Chester, one of the neatest 
on this Continent, being thus founded and 
builded ; y« inside work of it was soon after 
compleated & beautified mostly at the charges 
of those who frequented it as their place of 
worship, and now it wants no decent or pro- 
per furniture (lior has it done for some years) 
to grace and adorn it. A handsome pulpit 
w"> a communion table, well rail'd in & set 
out w**" a rich cloth & a neat chalice (besides 
that which was given by H" Jeffrey Jeffryes,) 
both bestowed on this church by our most 
gracious Queen, are y« garnishing of its east 
end w'='> by no means are diminished or ob- 
scured by yo well contrived pews w"'' take up 
its west end and both sides of its spacious 
chancel. The Rev. M^ Henry Nicholls, a 
a man of good parts was the first Missionary 
that by particular appointment of ye Hon''"' 
Society officiated in this Church. He served 
here above four years; having entered upon 
the charge in February, 1703-4, & upon his 
move to Maryland with, as we are told, y* 
Bp of London's leave, ye Rev<> M'' George 
Ross, then Missionary at New Castle, not 
having his health at that place, settled here in 
July, 1 70S, and about 2 years after to jnocure 
the Society's approliation of his move, he went 
for England & having hi& desire he returned to 
Chester in September, 171 1, where lie still 



continues to serve the Church to the general 
satisfaction of his parishioners. 

" Thus you have a brief account of the found- 
ing, building and finishing of St. Paul's Church, 
at Chester, in Pennsylvania, & how the same 
has been supplied with Missionaries by that 
noble body for propagating the faith ; which 
account or history as it contains nothing but 
what most of us know to be true from our own 
experience ; so we hope our honorable Patrons, 
the Society will receive, as a faithful relation 
of the building of our Church; & as such 
transmit to posterity, that they may know the 
certainty of those things which God hath 
wrought for us in these remote parts of the 
world & bless his holy name for the same. 

Given, according to the 'Society's order, 
under our hands, at Chester, the 25th 
day of Jnne, in the 13th year of our Sov- 
ereign Lady, Anne, Queen of Great Bri- 
tain, &c., Annoque Domini, 1714." 

Ill reference to the Glebe, /. e., the 
Green, in Perrf s Papers, p. 23, it is 
said: "This land was given to the 
Swedes Church by Armgardt Pappe- 
gaya, daughter of Gov. Printz, the 
first Swedish Governor, for their use." 
— See the Address of Minister & Vestry 
of Church at Chester to the Society. 

The Rev. John Humphrey's in a let- 
ter to the Society from *' Chichester, 
alias Marcus Hook, near Chester, Oct. 
24, 1 7 18," says he could not get a 
house in Chester to live in, and had to 
buy a plantation of 100 acres, " about 3 
miles distant from Chester ; the Church 
people did attempt to build a Parsonage 
house there, but were not able to ac- 
complish it, & it remains as it has been 
these 3 years, just about 4 feet above 
ground as a reproach to them, and an 
infamous mark of their Poverty. I have 
undertaken to pay ;;^i5o, this coun- 
try's money for it." It would be in- 
teresting to know whether he refers to 
the Powell gift ; if not, where it was 
situated. I ^jresume it is the lot upon 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



119 



which the present edifice of St. Paul's 
is erected. 

There is an address from St. Paul's 
Church, at p. 28, of Dr. Perry's Pa- 
pers, signed " Jasper Yeates & oth- 
ers," and at pp, 53, 54, 58 & 59, Peti- 
tions signed " Jasper Yeates and oth- 
ers," but very unfortunately the names 
of the others are not given ; a very cul- 
pable omission in an historical work. 

The inhabitants of Chichester and 
Chester, on April 5, 1727, addressed 
the Society, (ib. p. 152,) asking for a 
Minister to supply Mr. Humphreys' 
place ; he appears not to have been a 
favorite. The letter is signed by Ralph 
Pile and Philip Ottey, only. 

At p. 219, same work, there is a Peti- 
tion of the congregation of St. Paul's 
to the Society, desiring the appoint- 
ment of Charles Fortescue, as a School- 
teacher, in the place of Mr. Houston, 
who had gone to Maryland — signed by 
James Walker, Charles Conner, Alex"" 
Hunter, Jno. Walker, Joseph Richards, 
Edward Richards, Chas. Illcore, Will" 
Turner, Sam' Webster, William Black 
and others. 

The Rev. Tho^ Thompson, Mission- 
ary at Chester, writing April 23, 1752, 
says, "I found no Church Wardens or 
Vestry, no house for the Minister to live 
in, nay, not a fit house to hire." 

In Anderson's History of the Church 
of England, in the Colonies, (1856,) 
3 vol. pp. 258, '59, & '60, there is a 
short history of the Rev. Messrs. Evans, 
Nichols, Ross and Humphreys' mis- 
sions and services, of no particular in- 
terest except that it states, that Mr. 
Evans induced the people of Chester 
to build a church in 1703, and that 
Mr. Nichols was a successful mission- 
ary at Chester for five years, neither 
of which statements are precisely cor- 
rect. The account is rose-colored in 



regard to the successes of the Mission- 
aries at Chester, Concord, and Chiches- 
ter, but it paints in doleful colors the 
fatigue of the long and distant journeys 
made by each missionary once a month 
to Marcus-Hook or Concord to preach. 
The letters of Rev. Mr. Backhouse, 
and other Missionaries, complain of 
the smallness of the congregation, (at 
Chester,) the want of a Parsonage, the 
insolence of the Quakers and other 
sects, the extreme poverty and igno- 
rance of the people, the long journeys 
they have to make, the small salaries 
they receive, &c. It is not pleasant 
reading for many reasons which I will 
not give. 

Humphries in his account, states, 
that the Rev. John Humphreys was 
very acceptable to the people of Ches- 
ter, &c. His letters in Perry' s Papers 
denote the contrary very emphatically. 
See pp. 117, 152 and 217. 

The Rev. Mr. Backhouse, in a let- 
ter dated June 26, 1748, {Perry's Pa- 
pers, 251,) writes, "The Moravians 
have hired a house to keep their meet- 
ings in twice a month, (/. e. every 
other Sunday,) at Marcus Hook, to 
which place my congregation resort, 
but I hope (and believe) more through 
curiosity than anything else, because 
they show me the same respect they 
ever did, and carefully attend the 
church as formerly when it is my turn 
to be there," &:c. 

A most excellent Christian was 
Backhouse ! For it will be well to 
remember in this connection, that in 
the year 1737, Dr. Potter, the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury said, " That the 
Moravian Brethren were an Apostolic 
and Episcopal church, not sustaining 
any doctrine repugnant to the thirty- 
nine articles of the Church of England ; 
that they could not therefore with pro- 



120 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



priety, nor ought they to be hindered 
from preaching the. gospel among the 
heathen." — See Martin's Bethlchcni 
and the Moravians, p. 8. Jeremiah 
Collett left a legacy to the minister at 
Chester to jireach four times a year at 
Marcus Hook. 

In Ferry's Papers, 314, the Rev. 
Thomas Thompson is referred to as a 
man of bad character. At p. 22 there 
is a letter without date, but arranged 
among the papers of 1 704, of no par- 
ticular interest here, from the minister 
and vestry at Chester, to the Society, 
signed Henry Nichols, Minister, Jasper 
Yeates, James Sanderlands, Wm. Pic- 
kett, Edward Danger, Wm. Davies, 
Thos. Powell, Tho. Baldwine, John 
Wade, Henry Pierce, Jer. Collett and 
Wm. Martin. The latter is an error, 
it should be Walter Martin. 

The following, to us, curious adver- 
tisement, is extracted from the Penn- 
sylvania Journal for Jan'y 14, 1762 : 

" Whereas the memljers of the Episcopal 
congregation of St. Paul's church, in the an- 
cient Burrough of Chester, in the Province of 
Pennsylvania, having received repeated inti- 
mations from the Honorable Society for pro- 
pagating the Gospel in foreign parts, that by 
the standing rules in said Society, they will be 
obliged to withdraw the Mission from them if 
they do not forthwith make the necessary pro- 
vision for the better accommodation of their 
Missionary which the Society expects and re- 
quires, viz., a glebe, a dwelling hpuse, and 
their Church and burying ground in decent 
order and repair; which things, unfortunately 
for them, their predecessors did not care to 
secure when land was to be had at any easy 
rates, and building cheap to what it is now. 
They find themselves under the disagreeable 
necessity to apply to the publick by way of a 
Lottery, not doubting that it will meet with 
all suitaljle encouragement, frdni the well dis- 
posed of every denomination, as it is intended 
for the Glory of God and consequently for the 
good of the Province. This LoUerj' is calcu- 
lated greatly to the advantages of the adven- 



turous, the large prizes being so reduced as to 
make the small ones of more value than any 
hitherto exhibited to the public for the raising 
so small a sum as that of £,^(^2 10. o. 
The Scheme is as follows, viz. : 

No. 0/ Prizes. Value in Dollars. Total Value . 

1 of 500 is 500 

2 of 200 is 400 
6 of 100 is 600 

12 of 50 is 600 

30 of 20 is 600 

90 of 10 is 900 

1590 of 4 is 6,360 

I First drawn Blank, 20 

I Last drawn Blank, 20 



1733 Prizes. 10,000 

3267 Blanks. 

5000 Ticket at 2 Dollars each, is 10,000. 
Deductions at 15 per cent, is 1,500. 

Managers. — Rev. Richard Peters, John 
Ross, esq., Mr. James Young, Mr. Charles 
Stedman, and Dr. John Kearsley jr., in Phil- 
adelphia; Roger Hunt, esq., Messrs. John 
Mather and James Day, in Chester, who are to 
give Bond and be upon oath faithfully to dis- 
charge the Trust in them reposed. 

Tickets are sold by the respective Managers 
at their dwellings, and by the following gentle- 
men, viz. : in Chester county, by Dr. Paul 
Jackson, Elisha Price, George Lownes, Philip 
Ford, John Henley, Walter Smith, Jonathan 
Vaughan, Jacob Richards, John Marshall ; in 
New Castle county, by Emanuel Grubb, Dr. 
John McKinlcy, Dr. Benjamin Vanleer, Thom- 
as Dunn, and William Golden, esq'rs, and Mr. 
Slater Clay ; in Dover, by Thomas Parke, esq'r, 
in Lancaster, by John Douglass, Isaac Rich- 
ardson and David Stout, esq'rs, and by Wil- 
liam Bradford and David Hall, in Philadel- 
phia. The Drawing to begin the first of March 
next in Philadelphia or Chester, or sooner if 
full ; the fortunate numbers will be published 
in the Philadelphia Journal and Gazette, imme- 
diately after the Drawing is finished. Prizes 
not demanded in Six Months after the Draw- 
ing is finished to be deemed as given to jiro- 
mote the Pious Design. 

N. B. — As the above sum will fall vastly 
short of completing everything as could be 
wished, it is hoped that if any are scru]:)ulous 
as to the Method of raising Money, yet wish 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



121 



well to the Design, and are willing to promote 
the same, if such Persons will deliver their 
Liberality into the hands of Mr. Charles 
Thompson, Merchant in Philadelphia, or to 
any of the Managers aforesaid, it will be grate- 
fully acknowledged and carefully applied ac- 
cordingly." 

Raising money by Lottery, seems to 
have been at that time a favorite mode 
of accompUshing any public or charita- 
ble object. In the same paper from 
which the above is copied, there is a 
Lottery announced for raising ^1500, 
" to finish the Presbyterian Church 
now erecting in the Forks of the 
Brandy wine." Also — " A Scheme to 
raise ^175 towards building a bridge 
in Manatawny Road over the rapid 
creek called Skippack." And in the 
issue of Jan. 28, 1762, '^ KScheitieiox 
a Lottery for raising ^^3000, to be ap- 
plied to erect a Lighthouse on Cape 
Henlopen, and otherwise to facilitate 
the navigation of the Delaware. ' ' 

St. Paul's Church, Chester, was one 
of the churches, that in 1785, joined 
in the act of Association, and was 
therefore one of the founders of the 
Diocese of Pennsylvania. The meet- 
ing to form the Diocese, was held in 
Christ Church, Philadelphia, May 24, 
1785- John Crosby, Jr., and John 
Shaw, were the deputies present from 
St. Paul's, Edward Vernon, the other 
deputy being absent. St. Paul's church, 
Chester, and St. Martin's church, 
Marcus Hook, are both set down in 
the records as admitted in 1786, which 
is an error in regard to St. Paul's. 

From the Philadelphia Gazetteer of 
July 3, 1789, I extract the following 
interesting notice, which shows that 
Chester' was a place of Sunday resort 
in the last century ; that the Minister 
was popular, and from this and other 
like advertisements, that the Kerlin's 
were great tavern-keepers and stage 



owners, and got up early in the morn- 
ing : " The Subscriber, (Matthias Ker- 
lin, Jr.), intends to run a Carriage 
from this city to Chester, every Sun- 
day and means to carry passengers at 
a lower rate than in the regular stage ; 
and in order that they may arrive in 
Chester in time for the Sermon, the 
Coach will leave the Indian Queen, 
in Fourth Street, at half-past 5 o'clock 
in the morning. At Chester a fresh 
set of able-bodied Horses will be pro- 
vided to return, so that the company 
may start thence in time for an agree- 
able refreshment at Messrs. Gray's, 
and arrive in Philadelphia as early as 
they wish." Thus all the senses were 
to be gratified in one day, and by a 
trip to Chester. By numerous adver- 
tisements in the newspapers of that 
time, it appears that George and Ro- 
bert Gray, at their " new House, Gar- 
dens and Greenhouse," gave a concert 
of music once a week, and run a stage 
twice a day to the city from Gray's 
Ferry, and kept " a genteel and plen- 
tiful table and fresh fish every day." 
The great dish of that day was, I sup- 
pose, " Catfish and Coffee. ' ' The well- 
known establishment of the Gray's 
stood on the west bank of the Schuyl- 
kill River, at the western extremity of 
the once celebrated floating bridge, 
near where the tracks of the Philadel- 
phia, Wilmington and Baltimore rail- 
road now cross that river. The old 
tavern still stands, but will soon dis- 
appear, as it is on the verge of a large 
stone quarry, and is besides in a very 
dilapidated condition. 

XIII. 

In the U. S. Gazette, Nov. i and 7, 
181 7, will be found the following ex- 
tract from the West Chester Federalist. 



122 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



"A Day in Chester. — Mr. Miner. — Ac- 
companied by a friend, I took a ride last week 
to Chester, the seat of Justice in Delaware 
County. The town lies on the west bank of 
the river 'Delaware, 15 miles below Philadel- 
phia and 12 above Wilmington. It is laid out 
in handsome squares, contains more than an 
hundred houses and about 1,000 inhabitants. 
The principal streets are paved. Thepublick 
buildings consist of a Court-house, Gaol, Bank- 
ing-house, Friends' Meeting house and an 
Episcopal Church. The Court-house and 
Gaol are situate on the south side of the main 
street. They are both of square stone, plain 
and convenient, and are ornamented in front 
by a double row of Lombardy Poplars, form- 
ing a pleasant shade and an agreeable walk. 

The Court-house bell probably shows the 
time that the buildings were erected ; it has 
cast on it, ' CHESTER, 1729.' 

The Episcopal Church is built of brick and 
is very ancient; the steeple, which is square, 
is of stone and entirely separate from the 
church. The bell is evidently of a later date 
than the building, it is not large, and has cast 
on it, 'ROGER RICE, CHESTER, 1743.' 

The burial Ground is one of the oldest in 
Pennsylvania. Some of the tombstones are 
more than a hundred years old ; our attention 
was directed to one in particular, remarkable 
for its antiquity, rudeness of sculpture and 
singularity of inscription. The following is a 
faithful copy : — 

For 

THE MEMORY OF 

FRANCIS BROOKS, 

who died Avgvst 
tlie 19, 1704, 
Aged 50 years. 

In Barbarian bondage 

And cruel tyranny 
For ten years together 

I served in Slavery 
After this Mercy broght me 

To my country fair 
At last I drowned was 

In River Delaware. 

The inside of the church is divided into 
four compartments by two aisles, one extend- 
ing from side to side, to the double doors, the 
other from the pulpit to the extreme part of 
the church ; fixed in the wall at the bottom of 
the aisle, opposite the pulpit, is a reddish 



sandstone, six feet by three, curiously carved, 
&c. [I omit the description of the Sandiland 
tablet which follows here.] 

Upland was the original name given to 
Chester. When or why it was changed, I 
could not learn ; but Upland is manifestly an 
improper appellation, as the town lies on the 
low lands of the Delaware. This spot was in 
the first place fixed upon by Wm. Penn for the 
I seat of government. On the bank of Chester 
Creek, which passes through the town, there 
is still shown an old wall, now making a part 
of a dwelling house, which formed one side of 
the first hall of justice in Pennsylvania— an- 
swering for the sessions of the Legislature, 
and the Courts of Justice; in both of which, 
Wm. Penn occasionally presided. 

Chester was formerly a place of considerable 
commerce ; but at present, of very little. The 
warehouses, and buildings nearest the water, 
are generally in a neglected and decaying state ; 
presenting a melancholy pictureof the "gleams 
of better days." In passing from the Court- 
house to the wharf, the eye is gratified by the 
view of the new banking-house, erected by 
the Bank of Delaware County. It is a brick 
building, handsome in its design, and neat in 
its execution, combining beauty with conveni- 
ence ; it is at once an ornament to the town 
and a credit to the liberal Directors of that 
institution. Would that the Directors of the 
Chester County Bank would ' go and do like- 
wise.' 

From the main street, and from the street 
next below, there are two noble wharves, ex- 
tending 500 feet into the river. They were 
erected by the voluntary subscriptions of the 
inhabitants, liberally aided by grants from the 
Legislature. The cost has been about$io,ooo 
each. They are calculated to aid the com- 
merce of the State, affording a safe harbor for 
vessels on their passage up and down the river, 
in stormy and inclement weather. From the 
end of the wharf the view was extremely fine. 
A hundred vessels, moving with a light breeze 
in various directions, gave a high degree of 
animation to the scene. The steamboat, ra- 
pidly moving through the water — the noise of 
the dashing wheels, the volume of smoke 
pouring from her pipe, looking like a vast sea 
monster, or a new ferry-boat of old Charon, 
just risen from the regions below — though a 
hundred times seen, still attracted attention 
like a novel exhibition. On the bank of the 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



128 



river, in the upper part of the town, is a house 
surrounded with trees, presenting a handsome 
appearance from the river; but its chief inter- 
est is derived from knowing it to be the man- 
sion of Commodore Porter, who so gallantly, 
nay, desperately defended the ' Star Spangled 
Banner,' on board the Essex in the bay of Val- 
paraiso. His dwelling is suitably placed for 
a sailor. The wave of the flowing tide almost 
washing the foundation of the building, and 
' Soothes him with its lullaby.' 

Among the vessels that passed while we 
were standing on the wharf, was a fine ship, 
in ballast. Capt. R. informed us, that a day or 
two before, the man who had attempted to pilot 
tlie ship down from Philadelphia, had run her 
aground. Desperate in his mortification, he 
threw himself into the stream and was seen 
no more. 

On the whole the day in Chester was very 

pleasant. The accommodations at P- 's 

were excellent." 

P Stands for Piper, no doubt. 

There is no name to the communica- 
tion, but it was probably written by 
Charles Miner, the editor of the Fed- 
eralist, to his paper. Capt. R. was 
Capt. Thomas Robinson. 

In 1835, the old church of St. Paul's 
at Chester, underwent extensive re- 
pairs. The number of pews was in- 
creased ; the old north entrance door 
closed ; a new chancel was built ; a 
gallery was erected across the western 
end of the building, and an entrance 
door cut out of the western wall ; 
a new belfry was put upon the west 
gable ; the high backs of the old 
pews were cut down, and the large 
square pews each made into two. I 
think there were six large pews. The 
Crosby's occupied the two south of the 
pulpit ; Major Anderson's descendants, 
the two northern ones ; Dr. Samuel 
Anderson occupied the large pew west 
of the Crosby's. He used to read the 
responses in a deep, full voice, and 
being a large man, quite overshadowed 



the small form of the Rev. Mr. Hall, 
in my youthful mind, although the lat- 
ter was perched up in a high box, with 
a sounding-board over his head, which 
looked like the extinguisher to the old 
tallow candles, so much so that I used 
to fear it would fall and put the min- 
ister out. . I can recall the Terrills, 
Deshongs, Edwards, Johnsons, Prices, 
Kerlins, Engles, Williams, Ladomus, 
Squire Samuel Shaw's family. Eyres, 
Porters, Cochrans, Wm. Martin's and 
John Martin's family, Irwins, Thur- 
lows, Dicks, Zeilins, Pipers, Bartrams, 
Finchs, Squire Smiths' family, &c. 

It was during the time the above 
alterations were being made, that the 
old detached belfry was torn down. 
Those old bell-towers were c^uaint, 
picturesque and attractive. Now the 
towers are invariably attached to the 
church buildings in this country. In 
Europe there are many yet standing 
apart from the church edifice. The 
most celebrated one is the leaning lower 
of Pisa. There are detached Cavipa- 
niles, or bell-towers yet standing at 
Chichester and Salisbury Cathedrals, 
and at Evesham, Berkeley, Walton, 
Ledbury, Pennbridge, Myler and Lap- 
worth, in England ; but none now, 
that I know of, in the United States. 

Formerly the Passing Bell was rung 
at St. Paul's Church on the death of 
one of the congregation. One toll 
for each year of the life of the person 
who had departed. I never remem- 
ber to have heard it but oi^ce ; I was 
then very young, and asked what it 
meant, and was told. The windows 
of my sleeping room at the north-east 
corner of Third and Main Streets, 
Chester, overlooked the old church 
and graveyard, and the graves of my 
ancestors, and I saw them daily for 
years, and everything concerning the 



124 



HISTORY OF ClIKSTEK. 



rhurcli is ini]iirssc(l on ni\ inind more 
vividly tlian anything else connected 
with ni\- childhood. In our Moravian 
churches the custom is still preserved 
of announcing the death of a member 
of the congregation, by music from the 
church steeples. As soon as a mem- 
ber of the church departs, -the trom- 
bone choir assemble in the belfry, and 
play three dirges. The second air 
announces the sex, age and choir of 
the one who has gone home, and thus 
unless a death is sudden and unexi>€ct- 
ed, the hearers know who has died. 

" And each departed hath its own sweet token, 
Whispered to loved-ones in that trumpet's 
tone, 

Distilling dew o'er hearts with sorrow broken — 
From Heavenly home." 

In 1850, the congregation of St. 
Paul's erected the present church edi- 
fice on the north side of Third Street. 
It was built in the most substantial 
manner, the building "being of stone, 
44 feet front by 84 feet in depth, with 
a steeple and belfry attached. During 
the winter of 1872 and '73, the new 
church was altered, increased in size 
and improved inside and out ; galle- 
ries being added capable of seating 150 
persons, and the number of pews in 
the body of the church being increased 
to 100, each capable of holding six 
persons, thus giving the building a 
capacity of .seating 750 people. A 
new steeple and belfry was erected on 
the building, which gives a really ele- 
gant and graceful appearance to the 
whole structure. 

At the risk of appearing to be pro- 
lix, I copy from the Chester Directory 
of 1859-60 : " The old structure which 
stood upon the opposite side of the 
street, and had subserved the holier 
inirposes of primitive days, then (in 



1850), yielded to the fiat of time, 
and the stone that marks the grave of 
Sandilands, and a few other crumbling 
ones, are the only mementoes of the 
spot, where — 



Tlie rude forefatl 



leep. 



" The first edifice was small, having 
contained 24 pews. Its style was very 
primitive ; one of its gables was cccu- 
l)ied by a large window, and exterior 
to the other was a tower some twelve 
feet distant from the gable, containing 
a belfry. The pulpit had its old-fash- 
ioned sounding boards. Among the 
venerable relics of the olden time, are 
two Chalices and their Salvers or plates ; 
one presented to the congregation by 
Queen Annie, the other by the Hon. 
Sir Jeffrey Jeffryes. The pieces are 
of very pure silver, but of workman- 
ship somewhat rude, in comparison 
with the refined skill of our own time. 
The Chalices bear the marks of the 
workman's hammer, and appear to 
have received their polish principally 
by long and frequent handling. The 
Chalice presented by the Queen has 
engraven upon it Annie Regin^. The 
time at which these pieces were pre- 
sented is not certainly known ; but it 
must have been prior to 1702, as they 
were used at the first communion of 
the church. They are still regularly 
used." 

The compiler of the Directory, says 
the church was repaired m 1702. We 
have seen that it was erected then. 
Queen Anne reigned from 1702 to 
1 714. Her present must have been 
subsequent to March 8, 1702, when 
William III. died, at the earliest 
during that year. The church was 
first opened for Divine worship on St. 
Paul's day, 1702, old style, the edifice 
having been completed in July of that 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



125 



year. St. Pauf s day comes on the 
25th of January; therefore, the church 
was opened for the first time, for the 
service of God, on Sunday, Jan. 24, 
1703, 7iew style, as has been stated by 
the Rev. George Kieth, in his Journal, 
and the chalices were first used on that 
day, if the communion was adminis- 
tered, as it undoubtedly was. But 
there is no proof that I know of, that 
they were used at the first communion, 
except unreliable tradition. 

I make the following extracts from 
"The Registry Booke of S' Paul's 
Church, Chester, in the Province of 
Pennsylvania, bought April i8th, 1 704, 
pret. oo;^ 14s. od." 

The first entry is, '• Att a Meeting 
of y" Parishoners of Chester in Penn- 
sylvania, April 1 8th, 1704: We the 
inhabitants and Parishoners of S' Paul's 
Church in y^ County of Chester, In y<= 
Province of Pennsylvania, do unani- 
mously constitute and appoint, 

Henry Nichols, Min., Wm. Pickels, 

Jasper Yeates, Hen. Pierce, 

Jer. Collett, John Wade, 

James Sandelands, Edward Danger, 

Thos. Powell, John Bristow, 

John Hannams, Sam. Bishop, 

To be our vestrymen, and do hereby 
Impower them or any five of them to 
be our Representatives In managing 
all the affairs that relate to y* Due Care 
of y* Church, as constituting of Church 
Wardens annually, hearing and re- 
ceiving their accounts and So Dis- 
charging them. And we do promise 
to allow such their constitutions and 
Discharges to be as valid as If Done 
by our Selves. Witness our hands. 



Thomas Barnslj' 
^James Mill, 

Edw. Jennings, 
Ralph Pyle, 
Gab. X Friend, 
Tho. Baldwin, 



Jt)hn Evans, 
John Maxfield, 
David Roberts, 
Isaac Calvert, 
Richard Adams 
Thom. Butterti( 



The above s^ psons Did at y" same 



Meeting and time afores** Constitute 
and apoynt Thomas Powell and W"" 
Pickle, Church Wardens." 

Then follows an account stated by 
the Wardens for the year 1704, in 
which they acknowledge to have re- 
ceived contributions, probably to pay 
for building the church, from Gov'' 
Nicholson by y* hands of Coll. Quarry, 
and from : — 



James Sandelands, 
Edward Danger, 
John Hannoms, 
John Bristow, 
John Wade, 
Gabriel Friend, 
Thomas Baldwin, 
John Evans, 
David Roberts, 
Isaac Calvert, 
Thomas Evans^ 
Widow Calvert, 
Charles Brooke, 
Joseph Corher, 
£57,08,9. 
ames Sandelands, ye Balla 



Jeremiah Collet, 
Thomas Powell, 
Henry Peirce, 
William Pickels, 
James Mill, 
Edward Jennings, 
Thomas Linvell, 
Samuel Bishop, 
John Ma.xfield, 
Joseph Powell, 
Richard Kenderdine, 
David Meridith, 
John I'owell, 
Ralph Pyle, 
Jack Beard, 
Thomas Powell and J 
p'd by them, ,£3, 14, 10. 



The Wardens claim credit Nov. 12, 
1704, for "cash p"* Y ferymen for 
Bringing Doun y'' Dyal, \s. 8(/., ac. of 
nayles for setting up y* Dyall, is. 2d., 
money spent and p** y^men for setting 
It up, 4J\" In 1704, William Cutler, 
clarke, is paid for services; and 6 shil- 
lings is paid "for a common prayer 
book with y* new Psalm for y^ clarke," 
and in 1 705 , there is a charge for ^i i , 
14, o, for a silver Communion Cup. 

From Ap'l 18, 1704, there was no 
meeting of the Parishioners until April 
22, 1 71 2, Mr. George Ross is men- 
tioned as Minister, and it was unani- 
mously agreed, that Joseph Worrayand 
Thomas Withers be Church Wardens ; 
and the following persons 



Joseph Powell, 
Thomas Baldwyr 
Jasper Yeales, 
Ralph Pyle, 
Thomas Powell, 



Joseph 



Thomas Barnesley, 
Henry Peirce, 
John Hannoms, 
Thomas Withers, 
Wm. Heurtin, 
Worray. 



126 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



1 715 and 1716. 
Jill). I luniiilircys, Minister. 
Cliurih Wai'dens. 
Jonas Sandelands, Thomas Banisley. 

I'estryiiit-u. 

Wm. Heurtin, Tobias Hendrickson, 

Ralph Pyle, Ed. Danger, 

Uiirencc Friend, Jos. Worrall, 

Henry Nayle, Jno. Hannoms, 

Henry Peirce, Jno. Tyler, 

John Wade, Thos. Withers. 

171 7, 1718 and 17 19. 
Chttrch Wardens. 
Henry Nayle, Henry Peirce. 

Vestrymen. 

Jonas Sandelands, 



William Heurtin, 
Thos. Withers, 
Jno. Hannoms, 
Ralph Pyle, 
John Tyler, (Taylor?) 
Tobias Hendrickson, 



Thos. Barnsley, 
Gabriel Friend, 
Ed. Danger, 
Tho. Baldwin, 
Johannes Rawson. 



1720. 
Church Wardens. 
Tobias Hendrickson, Jonas Sandelands. 

Vestryvicn. 
Henry Peirce, John Wade, 

Henrj' Nayle, Alex. Hunter, 

John Hannoms, Thomas Broom, 

Ralph Pyle, Francis Edwards, 

Thomas Baldwin, Eben Jenkins, 

Edward Danger, Richard Marsden, 

No Records until 1727, when the following 
were 

Chureh Ulii-dens. 
Alexander Hunter, Jno. Mather. 

Vestrymen. 

Henry Peirce, Jno. Wade, 

Jno. Hannoms, Thos. Broome, 

Ralph Pyle, Eben Jenkins, 

Thos. Baldwin, Jonas Sandelands, 

James Mather, Thos. Cooke, 

Thos. GifTling, Thos. Richards, Jr. 

The old Registry from which the 
above extracts are copied, contains 
besides the minutes of the meetings of 
the Parishioners and proceedings of the 
vestry, many other interesting matters 
inchiding a record of the baptisms, 
marriages, deaths and accounts of the 
church, from 1704 to 1820. 

"At a meeting or vestry held at Ches- 
ter church, Mar. 30, 1 741, the follow- 
ing subscribers promised to pay the 
several sum or sums annexed to their s-J 
several name or names, to iv for in 



consideration of purchasing a bell for 
said church." 



Jno. Mather, 
J. Barton, 
Jt)hn Sketchley, 
Sam'l Webster, 
Stephen Cole, 
Rob't Mcfarland, 
Alexander Hunter, 
George Lownes, 
Edward Richards, 
Will'm Keepers, 
Humphrey Johnson, 



James Mather, 
Charles Conner, 
William Turner, 
Joseph Richards, 
William Black, 
Edmond Bourke, 
George Scott, 
Chas. Grant, Esq. 
Arthur Thomson, 
Joseph Keepers, 
William Hay. 



The bell-tower, or " turret to hang 
thi; bell," was ordered to be built at a 
meeting of the vestry on April 15, 
1^45. "To be built of stone in the 
foundation from out to out Twelve by 
Fourteen foot." The bell was paid 
for by a Bill of Exchange of ^^30 in 
1742, one half of which was donated 
by John Mather. As the bell had cast 
on it "-Roger Rice, Chester, 1743," 
no doubt it was cast in England. 
This was not the Bell said to have been 
presented by Queen Anne. That 
was used previously, "on25xber, 1713, 
Cuffy was paid (>s. 6d, and Dick, David 
Roberts' boy, one shilling, for ring- 
ing the Church Belh" 

At a meeting of the Parishioners of 
S' Paul's Church on y^ 19th day of 
April, (being Easter Monday,) 1742, 
to chuse church wardens & vestrymen 
for y^ said year. Resolv'd that James 
Mather & Charles Conner, y* old 
Churchwardens, Be and Continue in 
y'= said Office this year Also and y*" 
Vestrymen be as follow. 



Alex. Hunter, 
Jno. Mather, 
Charles Grant, 
Jno. Sketchley, 
Jos. Richards, 
Edw'd Richards, 



Jno. Hanly, 
Stephen Cole, 
Geo. Lownes, 
Tho. Barton, 
Wm. Turner, 
Sam. Webster 



Resolv'd by y* said vestrye that y* 
stone over James Sandeland, deceas'd, 
be removed and put into a more com- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



127 



modius posture, & that y^ Pew in which 
it lies be converted into Two Pews. 

1753- 
Church Wardens. 
William Hay, James Day. 

Vestrymen. 
John Mather, James Day, Jr., 

James Mather, John Hauly, 

Samuel Shaw, John Morton, 

George Lownes, William Noblit, 

Joseph Richards, Aaron Baker, 

Joseph Baker, James Barton. 

1760. 
Church Wardens. 
Philip Ford, James Day, Jr. 

Sides- men. 
John Salkeld, William Marlow. 

Vestry 7?ie}i. 
John Morton, George Lownes, 

John Henley, George Morton, 

James Day, Jacob Richards, 

Thos. Nucem, Andrew Uerin, 

Samuel Shaw, John Mather, 

Wm. Thompson, George Culen. 

In 1760 the Minister chose Geo. 
l.ownes, to be Clerk, and the Vestry- 
chose Thomas Derrick to be Sexton. 
1764, John Whitehead, Sexton. Be- 
tween 1 7 60 and 1 79 1, the following new 
names appear among the Wardens & 
Vestry. 1761, James Cole, Richard 
Briggs. 1762, Walter Smith, Minis- 
ter's Warden, Vestry, George Morton. 
1763, Thomas Carver. 1764, Jacob 
Eyre, John Worrall, Valentine Wea- 
ver. 1766, Dr. Branson Vanleer, 
People's Warden, Vestry, Joseph 
Thomas, Elisha Price. 1767, Wil- 
liam Elliott. 1768, Peter Steel, Peo- 
ple's Warden. 1769, Vestry, Dr. 
David Jackson. 1770, Job Fallows, 
Isaac Salkeld, Doc"' Thomas Keymer. 
1 71 1, Thomas Fallows, Sketchley 
Morton, John Shaw. 1772, Joseph 
Marlow, Samuel Landers. 1 773, John 
Crosby, Jr. x']']'], Minister' s Warden, 
Joseph Gill, Vestry, Edward Vernon, 
Jonathan Richards. 1780, Wardens, 
John Worrall and James Withey, Ves- ' 
trymen, William Currie, Jr. 1782, 
Aaron Morton, Thomas Weaver. 1785, ' 



John Powell, John Harper, George 
Peirce. 1 787, John Caldwell, Thomas 
Richards. 1788, Richard Tidmarsh, 
Wm. Haselwood, Isaac Culen. 1789^ 
William Price, Jacob Peterson, War- 
dens, Vestryman, EdAvard Richards. 
1791. 

Church Wardens. 
Elisha Price, James Withy. 

Vestrymen. 
Peter Salkeld, ' Wm. Haselwood, 

John Caldwell, Wm. Willis, 

George Peirce, Charles Grantham, 

Edward Richards, William Price, 

John Crosby, Jonathan Richards, 

John Marlow. 
1792 and 1793. 
Church Wardens. 
Elisha Price, Jas. Withy. 

Vestrymen. 
John Crosby, John Crozier, 

Caleb Davis, John Caldwell, 

John Marlow, William Willis, 

Peter Salkeld, Abner Barton, 

Edward Richards, Charles Grantham, 

Wm. Haselwood, William Price. 

1794. 
Church JVardens. 
John Crosby, James Withy. 

Vestrymen. 
John Crofier, John Caldwell, 

William Price, George Pierce, 

Chas. Grantham, William R. Atlee, 

Isaac Culen, William Willis, 

Elisha Price, Abner Barton, 

William Haselwood, Caleb Davis. 

1796. 
Church Wardens. 
John Crosby, Esq., James Withy. 

Vest>ymcn. 
Elisha Price, Charles Grantham, 

Isaac Culen, Abner Barton, 

Wm. Haselwood, Peirce Crosby, 

Thos. Smith, John Crosby, Jr., 

John Caldwell, Bream Shottero, 

William Willis, Jesse Beckerton. 

1797 and 1798. 
Church JVardens. 
James Withy, John Crosby, Esq. 

Vestrymen. 
Wm. Martin, Esq., Mr. Wm. Anderson, 

Elisha Price, Esq., Phillip Painter, 

Isaac Culen, Thomas Smith, 

John Caldwell, Eden Barton, 

Jesse Beckerton, Peirce Crosby, 

Abner Barton, John Crosby, Jr. 

In 1798, John Crosby declined to 
act as Church Warden, and William 



12^ 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



ISIartin, Esq., was unanimously chosen 
in his place. In Feb. 14, 1799, Wm. 
Martin being deceased, John Caldwell 
was made \Varden in his stead. In 
1804, Peter Salkeld was re-appointed 
sexton. On Dec. 9, 1811, "all the 
deeds, &:c., which had been in posses- 
sion of 'John Crosby, Esq., for the 
Glebe House & for that part of the 
burying ground adjoining Welch street, 
&c., were deposited in the hands of 
Abner Barton, one of the Church War- 
dens, and also the two silver chalic.es, 
& two pewter plates, & the two silver 
salvers are now missing, it is hoped 
they will be returned." Aug. 6, 1814, 
"Abner Barton going out of the State, 
delivered the above articles to George 
B. Lownes." In 1782, the glebe- 
house, kitchen and garden, belonging 
to the church, were rented to Dr. 
Jacob Tobin, for j[^2\ per annum. 
After the Rev. Levi Heath left the 
church in 1798, John Odenheimer 
rented and lived in the glebe house 
for many years. It is a disgrace to 
the church, that this property fronting 
on Market Street, was ever sold. 

1799. 

Church II ardt'tis. 
John Caldwell, James Withy. 

Vestrymen. 

Capt. Wm. Anderson, 
John Odenheimer, 
James Shaw, 
Caleb Davis, 
John Saflfer, 
Eden Barton. 

1801, 1802 and 1803. 
Church Wardens. 
John Caldwell, James Withy. 

/ 'est ry men. 
John Crosby, John Crozier, 

Pcircc Crosby, James Bernard, 

Wm. Odenheimer, Samuel Price, 

William Anderson, Abner Barton, 

Eden Barton, Isaac Culcn, 

Philip Painter, James Shaw. 

The church was incorporated June 



John Crosby, 
John Crozier, 
Isaac Culen, 
Peirce Crosby, 
Phillip Painter, 
Abner Barton, 



13, 1818, and the Charter enrolled in 
office of the Secretary of State, in Book 
2, p. 423. It was amended by the 
Court of Delaware County, Aug. 24, 
1846; the corporate title being, "The 
Rector, Church Wardens and Vestry- 
men of St. Paul's Church in Chester, 
Delaware County." The names of 
the corporators are Peirce Crosby, 
Charles Granthum, Peter Deshong, 
Mark Winter, George B. Lownes, Jo- 
seph Piper, John Caldwell, Nimrod 
Maxwell, John Crosby, Job H. Terrill, 
Curtis Lownes, A. Perlee, Robert P. 
Crosby and John S. Morton, who were 
the Wardens and Vestrymen of the 
church at the time of the application 
for the Charter in 181 8. 

The Ministers of St. Paul's, from 
1702 to this time, have been, viz. : — 



ev. Evan Evans, . . . , 


17:2 t 


J 1704 


" Henry Nichols, . . . . 


1704 ' 


1708 


" George Ross, . . . . 


1708 ' 


1714 


" John Humphreys, 


1714 ' 


17^6 


" Samuel Hesselius, 


1726 ' 


1728 


" Richard Backhouse, . 


1728 ' 


1749 


" Thomas Thompson, 


1 751 ' 




" Israel Acreliiis, . . . . 


1756 ' 





" George Craig, . . . . 


1758' 


' 1781 


" James Connor, . . . . 


1788 • 


' 1 791 


" Joseph Turner, . . . . 


1791 ' 


' 1793 


" Levi Heath, 


1796' 


• 1798 


" Joshua Reece, . . . . 


1803 ' 


1805 


" William Pryce, . . . . 


181S * 


1818 


" Jacob Morgan Douglass, 


1818 ' 


1822 


" Rich'd Umstead Morgan, . 


1822 ' 


' 1831 


" John Baker Clemson, D. D., 


1831 ' 


' 1835 


" Richard D. Hall, . . . . 


1835 ' 


' 1837 


" Mortimer Richmond Talbot, 


1837 ' 


1841 


" Greenberry W. Ridgely, 


1842 • 


1848 


" Anson B. Hard, Associate rector, 


1844- 


' 1848 


" Charles W. Quick, 


1849- 


1850 


" Lewis P. W. Balch, D. D., . 


1850 • 


•1853 


" Nicholas Sayre Harris, 


1853 ' 


' 1855 


" Daniel Kendig, . . . . 


1855 ' 


1859 


" M. Richmond Talbot, . 


I8S9 ' 


' 1861 


" J. Pinckney Hammond, 


1861 ' 


' 1863 


" Henry Brown, . . . . 


1863 ' 





The same minister had charge of St. 
Paul's and St. Martin's churches until 
1850. The Rev. Messrs. Evans, Hes- 
selius and Acrelius, were not regularly 
stationed at Cliestcr, but officiated 
there during the jjcriods mentioned. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



129 



The Society for Propagating the Gos- 
pel in Foreign Parts, was organized 
June 27, 1701, and Chester was made 
a missionary station that year, and the 
same missionary had charge of the con- 
gregations at Chester, Marcus Hook, 
and Concord. Lewis P. W. Balch, 
D. D., now deceased, was lately Arch- 
bishop of Canada; Nicholas Sayre 
Harris, graduated at the U. S. Mili- 
tary Academy at West Point, June, 
1825, No. 25 in his class, promoted to 
Bvt. 2d Lt. 5th Infantry, assistant In- 
structor of Tactics at the Military 
Academy, from 1831 to '34, resigned 
May 31, 1835 ; J. Pinckney Ham- 
mond, Chaplain U. S. Volunteers in 
1862, brother of the then Surgeon 
General of the U. S. Army. The Rev. 
M. R. Talbot served temporarily, the 
second time, he being a Chaplain 
in the U. S. Navy, and stationed 
at the U. S. Naval Asylum, Philadel- 
phia, where he died April 21, 1863, in 
the 59th year of his age. Mr. Talbot 
had once been a midshipman in the 
U. S. Navy. He married Eliza Horn- 
blower, daughter of the late Chief 
Justice of New Jersey ; their only 
child, Joanna, married Dr. Charles 
Evesfield, late Medical Director U. S. 
Navy. He died Oct. 5, 1873. 

There are some monumental remains 
in St. Paul's old Church-yard of an 
interesting character. The oldest of 
these has been already given. 

The next in date runs, — "Robert 
French, obt, Sept. 9, 17 13." This is 
cut upon an ordinary slat of sienite, 
six feet long, and three and a half 
feet wide, and is made the stepping- 
stone from the front gateway of the 
present church edifice. 

The following inscription has a his- 
tory which will interest all my read- 
ers. 



" Here lieth 
PAUL JACKSON, A. M. 

He was the first who received a Degree 

In the College of Philadelphia. 

A Man of virtue, worth and knowledge. 

Died, 1767, aged 38 years." 

Dr. Samuel Jackson, of Philadelphia, 
who died within the past year (1873,) 
at an extreme old age, was a nephew 
of Paul Jackson and a son of Dr. 
David Jackson by his second wife, 
Susan Kemper. 

In Watson's Annals, pp. 127 and 
128, edition of 1856, it is stated, that 
"Dr. Paul Jackson was a surgeon in 
the Braddock Expedition, and a broth- 
er-in-law of the Hon. Charles Thomp- 
son, and one of the best classical 
scholars of his time." His brother, 
David Jackson, graduated in the Col- 
lege of Philadelphia, as Bachelor of 
Medicine, June 21, 1768. On that day 
the first public Commencement of any 
medical college in America, was held 
by the University of Philad'a. There 
were two departments to the Univer- 
sity of Philadelphia, the literary and 
the medical, then, as there is now to 
its successor, the University of Penn- 
sylvania. Dr. Paul Jackson, was Pro- 
fessor of Languages in the University 
of Philadelphia, from 1758 to 1767. 
I derive this information from an old 
writing that was deposited in the cor- 
ner-stone of the old University, and 
which was taken out of it when the 
building was torn down Dec, 1873. 
He was not, therefore, the first person 
who took a degree in the Medical De- 
partment of the College of Philadel- 
phia, as he died in 1767, and the first 
degree was taken by his brother in 1768. 
Medical instruction in the College did 
not commence until May 3, 1765. 
The inscription upon the tombstone 



130 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



nia)', however, have reference to his 
degree inscribed thereon of Master of 
Arts, and is, perhaps, correct. 

Dr. Smith says, in his Biot^^raphical 
Sketches : 

" Dr. Paul Jackson was distinguished fur his 
talents, and was one of the most highly edu- 
cated men of his day. When quite a young 
man he was appointed professor of Greek and 
Latin in the College of Philadeljihia, now 
the University of Pennsylvania. Finding his 
health impaired by confinement and study, he 
left college and joined the expedition of Gen- 
eral Forbes, got up for the reduction of Fort 
Du Quesne, as commander of a company. In 
this expedition his prudence and bravery com- 
mended him to the particular notice of the 
General. By the active life of a soldier, his 
health was improved; but his fondness for 
study returning with his renewed health, he 
abandoned the military profession and engag- 
ed in the study of physic. Having by great 
application, and Ijiy attendance at what was 
then called " The Royal Hospital," become 
well versed both in the theory and practice of 
medicine and surgery, he settled in Chester, 
where he soon became a well established and 
successful physician. After practising his pro- 
fession for some years, and while holding the 
office of Chief Burgess of the town, he died at 
Chester, in the year 1767, at the early age of 
38 years, and was buried in St. Paul's church- 
yard. There are reasons for believing that 
this eminent man was a native of Chester." 

As to what Dr. Smith's reasons 
were he, unfortunately, leaves us in 
the dark; we like to know all about 
Chester folks. 

Samuel Jackson, of Oxford, Chester 
County, died in 1765, leaving sons, 
Paul, Samuel and David. Paul mar- 
ried Jane, daughter of John Mather 
of Chester, and settled there, and by 
virtue of his office of chief burgess was 
a Justice of the Common Pleas from 
1762 till his death. He left three 
children, John Mather Jackson, Mary 
and Charles Jackson, and his widow 
married in 1770, Dr. David Jackson 
of Phila.leli)hia. 



Dr. David Jackson, Sen., was " Sur- 
geon, G. hospital," Pennsylvania, dur- 
ing the Revolution. Whether he was 
Surgeon General of the Pennsylvania 
troops, or Surgeon in the General Hos- 
l)ital, (.see 14 Colonial Records, 435,) 

I cannot determine. 

Near the tomb that covers the re- 
mains of Dr. Jackson, and like it, 
lying flat upon the surface of the 
ground, and of the same material, a 
dark slate-colored marble, there is an 
immense memorial-stone, on which is 
cut the following: 

" In Memory of Margaret Mather, wife 
of James Mather, who departed this life Feb- 
ruary 1st, 1777, in the 68th year of her age. 
Firm to her friend, and to her promise just, 
Benevolent and of a religious trust. 

Also in memory of James Mather Ver- 
non, son of Edward and Mary Vernon, 
who departed this life April 24, 1777, aged 
two years, eight months and 24 days. 
Grand mamey's gone before, God's will be 

done, 
I'll follow her, she's nigh, I'm her own grand- 
son. 

Also in memory of Jamks Mather, who 
departed this life January nth, 17S0, in the 
77th year of his age. 
Though the worms my antiant body turns to 

dust, 
Yet I hoj^e my soul in heaven will live among 
the just. 

Also in memory of Peter Mather \'er- 
NON, son of Edward and Mary Vernon, who 
departed this life November 10, 1779, aged 
20 months. 

Also in memory of Abigal Vernon, daugh- 
ter of Edward and Mary Vernon, who departed 
this life December 15, 1781, aged five weeks. 

Also in memory of Rehecca Vernon, 
daughter of Edward and Mary Vernon, who 
departed this life December 15, 1784, aged 

I I months and 1 1 days. 

Also in memory of Edward Test Vernon, 
son of Edward and Mary Vernon, who de- 
parted this life July 9th, 1785, aged one day. 

Also in memory of Mary Vernon, wife of 
Edward Vernon, Esq., who departed this life, 
October 16, 1785, aged 35 years. 



HISTORY OF OlIESTEK. 



l;jl 



She seven sweet h.ibjs with patience bore, | 
then died, 1 

Five of them now mouldering by her side, 
The other two here left her to bewail, 
Her hiisl)and also to lament her fall. 
That blooming rose, the pride once of this life 
A tender Mother, a virtuous loving wife. 
Called from the bosom of her husband dear; 
For fifteen years he was her constant care. 
Firm to her friend, and free from all deceit, 1 
( lood Abraham's bosom we hope will be her seat I 
Slie's gone before, to Paradise we trust — 
Prepare to follow her, she'll not return to us, 
What once had virtue, grace and wit. 
Lies mouldering here beneath your feet. 
Cold is her bed, and dark her room. 
But Angels watch around her tomb, 
Till the last music of the skies, 
Relieves her guard and bids her rise. 

At the head of this memorial stone 
is sculptured an hour-glass, crossed 
by two arrows, and supported on 
each side by angel's heads, winged; 
and at the bottom, underneath the 
above lines, are two crossed thigh 
bones, with winged angel's heads at 
the corners. 

On the monumental stones in this 
ancient graveyard, one can read the 
names of the old Episcoi>al families of 
Chester and its vicinity ; the Jacksons, 
Shaws, Prices, Lownes, Crosbys, Mor- 
tons, Martins, Granthams, Porters, 
Odenheimers, Wades, Andersons, De- 
shongs, Bowens, Bartons, Baggs, Jus- 
tises. Haddocks, Richards, Mathers, 
Terrills, Vernons, and others. 

Immediately to the south-west of, 
and at the head of the vault of my 
late uncle Robert Peirce Crosby, stand 
two ancient gray sandstone memorial 
stones side by side ; at the top of each 
is cut an hour-glass ; in the middle, 
and at each upper corner, angels' 
heads without bodies, but with wings 
issuing from behind their ears. On 
one of these stones will be foimd the 
following inscription : 

18 



^^In Memory of Samuel Shaw, 

Who was born in Lincolnshire, 

In England, A. D. 1707, 

And departed this life at his seat 

Near Chester, in Pennsylvania, 

September 20, 1783. 

He lived resolved & steady to his trust. 
Free from deceit, in all his actions just. 

And upon the other stone : 

Here lies the body of Marv, 
The wife of Samuel Shaw, 
Who departed this Life, the 19th Janu- 
ary, I 768, in the 40th year of her age. 

In the midst of life we are in death. 

Here lies 
The tender Mother, who bears a child. 

Then dies. 

Samuel and Mary Shaw, above men- 
tioned, had four children, viz. ; John, 
Samuel, Ann, and Mary, all of whom 
died young, being swept off by that 
fearful scourge, the yellow fever, so 
prevalent and fatal along the banks of 
the Delaware during the last half of 
the 1 8th century. Samuel Shaw's se- 
cond wife was Hannah, a daughter of 
Tristram Smith, of Delaware County, 
Penna. They had five children, Wil- 
liam, Hannah, James, Jane and Lydia. 
William died without issue. Hannah 
m. Passmore West, they had two chil- 
dren, Samuel and Sallie Annie, who 
died without issue. James 7?i. Jane, 
dau. of Thomas and Martha Preston 
Sharpless, of Chester ; their only chil- 
dren were Martha Preston and Samuel 
Shaw. James died, and his widow, 
Jane, m. Davis Bevan, son of David 
and Agnes Bevan, of Chester, in 1803. 
Martha P. Shaw, dau. of James and 
Jane, m. George W. Hill, of Ridley, 
late of Aston, deceased : they had is- 
sue, Catharine Fairlamb, ;«. John 
Hastings ; James Shaw, m. Elizabeth 
Massey ; Jane Sharpless, w. George 



132 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



I luwanl : C.corgc \\'ashiiigt()n, /;/. Mary 
1). Peters ; antl Mar)-, in. Edward 
Massey ; of these Catharine and Jane 
are deceased. 

Samuel Shaw, son of James and Jane, 
m. Mary Ann, dau. of John and Isa- 
bella Eyre, of Upper Chichester, and 
had four children, James George, 
John Eyre, Martha Preston, and Emily 
Anna. Martha died in infancy. James 
G. m. Virginia, dau. of the late Major 
Joseph Carr, of New Castle County, 
Delaware. They have one son, James 
George Shaw, Jr. ; Emily Anna ;//. 
William M. Burgin, of Philadelphia, 
and they have three children, Samuel 
Shaw, Alice, and William Matthews 
Burgin. John Eyre Shaw, Esq., is 
unmarried, and is a practising member 
of the Philadelphia Bar, but resides in 
the city of Chester. 

Jane, dau. of Samuel and Hannah 
Shaw, w. Ephraim Pearson, of Chester. 
They had eight sons, William, Samuel, 
Ephraim, James, Charles, Edwin, Be- 
noni J. and Hamlet. William, the 
eldest, when young, went to Rich- 
mond, Va., where he married and 
died, leaving four sons, William H., 
living in New York City ; George, 
who died in St. Louis ; Robert, living 
in Chester, and Charles E., wlio died 
in Leavenworth City. Samuel married, 
but died without issue. Ephriam was 
lost at sea. James died leaving a widow 
and three daughters. Charles died 
unmarried. Edwin died, leaving two 
daughters, both married and living in 
Chester. Benoni J. died, leaving three 
sons. Hamlet died, leaving surviving 
a widow, three daughters and a son, 
since dead. Mrs. Pearson died in 
Philadeljihia in 1862, in her 88th 
year. She out-lived all her sons. 

Lydia Shaw, sister of Jane, married 
Jacob Peterson ; they had three chil- 



dren, of whom onl\ Samuel Shaw Pe- 
terson survives, and is now residing in 
Binghampton, State of New York. 

In an old note book of Judge Crosby, 
wherein the first entry is made May 2, 
1803, there is entered, without date, 
the following: — " Elisha Price, Esq., 
John Crosby, Jr., Wardens; P. S. 
Isaac Culin, was chosen Warden on 
account of Elisha Price, Esq., being 
sickly, and not able to attend to the 
business. D'' the following persons 
to the Church Wardens of St. Paul's 
Church, in the township of Chester." 
The original leaves of this old book 
have been torn out and others sewed 
in, upon which are copied numerous 
legal forms of writs, &c. The last 
entry is dated May 20, 181 3. showing 
that John Crosby was an Associate 
Judge at that time. He was appoint- 
ed April 20, 1799. I have his com- 
mission bearing that date. 

There is an illustration in Dr. 
Smith's history of the county, facing 
page 209, containing in the centre of 
the picture an end view of old St. 
Paul's Church, as it appeared after 
the repairs and alterations were made 
in 1835, when the old stone belfry 
was torn down. On the left of the 
picture is seen a portion of a double 
stone dwelling. This was the first 
office of the Delaware County, now 
the Delaware Mutual Safety Insurance 
Company, and my father, the then 
Secretary of the Company, occupied 
the dwelling, and from the back win- 
dows of the house, we could look out 
upon a long view of the river Delaware 
to the east ; an idea of which can be had 
from the engraving; and also upon old 
St. Paul's Church and the churchyard, 
and upon the tombs of our ancestors, 
most of which were directly in front 
of the gable door seen in the drawing. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



133 



To the right of the picture is to be seen 
the end of the frame structure, or 
Town Hall, which was formerly over 
the old Market House, in the square 
at Third and Market Streets, and which 
was occupied in 1835, by the Chester 
Library Company. 

The old church building of St. 
Paul's was torn down about 1850; an 
useless destruction of an old edifice. 
It would have been much more credit- 
able to the congregation, had it been 
preserved for its antiquity, and applied 
to the purposes of the Sunday-School. 

" They all are passing from the land, 
Those Churches old and gray, 
In which our forefathers used to stand, 
In years gon; by, to pray." 

I have been much pained to know, 
that a majority of the lay members of 
the congregation of St. Paul's, per- 
mitted the sale of a portion of the old 
graveyard to the west, leading out into 
Market Street. In the early part of 
1872, a suggestion was made without 
effect, by some person or persons con- 
nected with the congregation, that the 
whole of the old graveyard lying south 
of Third Street should be sold, and the 
proceeds applied to increasing the size 
of the present church. I may here say 
that this kind of thing cannot be le- 
gally done without the consent of the 
families of those buried in the enclo- 
sure. I am aware, that in Philadelphia 
such removals have been attempted and 
been resisted in the Courts; yet finally 
the object has been accomplished, 
but always by compromise, a new 
place of burial being obtained, the 
land having become too valuable to 
let the dead rest in their chosen jjlace 
of repose ; but that such an idea should 
be entertained in Chester, where land 
is plenty, and where live relatives of 



many of the dead, who lie buried in old 
St. Paul's graveyard, is almost incredi- 
ble. Apart from the mere matter of 
feeling, our ancestors bought of the 
Church the right of burial, and such a 
right was sold, knowing it was to exist 
for all time. And whatever may be the 
rights of the present congregation, the 
dead and their descendants have rights 
which cannot be successfully resisted. 
I trust the day may never come when 
the congregation, to save their purses, 
will sell the bones of their ancestors. 



■ 












9 












2 




< 




10 


3 




II 


4 


12 








SOUTH DOOR. 


5 




19 




13 


6 


14 


18 


7 


IS 


17 


8 


16 








1 



The above is reduced from a simi- 
lar plan on p. 25 of the first Registry 
book before referred to^ and is called 
'' A list of y'^ Pews of S' Paul's Church, 
Chester, (S: to whom they belong." 
Pages 23 and 24 are missing, perhaps 



134 



HISTORY OF CHRSTER. 



stolen, and with them the list of Pew- 
owners ; however, a partial list of those 
who occupied the pews at other periods 
is given. No. i was "The Pulpit," 
No. 2 " The Minister's Seat." 

In 1791, No. 2 was occupied by Wm. 
Willis; 3, by John Caldwell & Jno: 
Marlow ; 4, by George Peirce & Jesse 
Beckerton ; 5, Peter Salkeld ; 6. J. Wor- 
rall & Cooper; 9, Ed. Richards; 10, 
John Crosby, Esq., eS: C. Grantham; 
II, E. Price, Esq. ; 12, Wm. Hasel- 
wood ; 13, Isaac Hanes ; 14, J. Slaugh- 
ter & Ad. Barten ; 18, J. Withy. 

In 1792, Abner Barton has No. 13 ; 
James Withy, No. 4. In 1793, No. 
10, Thomas Smith ; No. 9, John Cros- 
by, Esq. ;'i4, Stephen Cioele. 

In 1803, No. 2, James Bernard; 3, 
John Caldwell ; 4, Caleb Davis, Esq. ; 
5, Daniel Morton; 6, Wm. Siddons 
li: John Wood ; 9, John Crosby, Esq. ; 
10, Messrs. Barton; 11, Doc'' Ander- 
son & John Odenheimer ; 12, Wm. 
Anderson; 13, Isaac Culin, ; 14, Philip 
Painter, Esq., tSc his brother; 15, 
George B. Lownes. Before 1835, ^'""^ 
Pulpit was where the Chancel is marked 
on the plan ; and the Pews, I believe, 
were differently arranged. 

One other monument standing in 
the old burial grounds of St. Paul's, 
demands attention. It consists of a 
plain shaft of marble, nine feet in 
height, its four sides facing precisely 
the four cardinal points of the com- 
pass. It is without any ornamental 
carving, except the coats of arms of 
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 
encircled by a wreath of laurel. Here 
lies the body of one of our country's 
patriot sons, and Revolutionary heroes, 
a native of our Commonwealth, and of 
the county of Delaware ; the inscrip- 
tion on the Avest side of. the memorial 
shaft, states that it is — 



" Dedicated to the memory of 
JOHN MORTON, 
A Member of the first American Con- 
gress from the State of Pennsylvania, 
Assembled in New York, 1765, and of 
the next Congress Assembled in Phil- 
adelphia in 1774. 
Born A. D. 1724 — Died April, 1777." 

Upon the east side of the column is 
the following statement : 

" In voting by States upon the ques- 
tion of the Independence of the Amer- 
ican Colonies, there was a tie until the 
vote of Pennsylvania was given ; two 
members of which voted in the affir- 
mative, and two in the negative. The 
tie continued until the vote of the last 
member, John Morton, decided the 
promulgation of the glorious Diploma 
of American Freedom." 

Upon the north face of the shaft 
will be found inscribed, that — 

"John Morton being censured by 
some of his friends for his boldness in 
giving his casting vote for the Decla- 
ration of Independence, his prophetic 
spirit dictated from his death bed the 
following message to them : ' Tell them 
they will live to see the hour when they 
shall acknowledge it to have been the 
most glorious service I ever rendered 
to my country.' " 

And upon the south face of the stone 
are engraven the w- ords : 

"In 1775, while Speaker of the As- 
sembly of Pennsylvania, John Morton 
was re-elected a Member of Congress, 
and in the ever memorable Session of 
July, 1776, he attended that august 
body for the last time, enshrining his 
name in the grateful remembrance of 
the American People by signing the 
Declaration of Independence." 

The first mention I find made of the 
name of tiie Morton family of Dela- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



135 



ware County, in this country, is in the 
names attached to the Oath of Alleg- 
iance of the Swedes to the Dutch in 
1655, {^Hazard, 186,) where the name 
is spelled Martin Martens. In an old 
Book of Surveys at Harrisburg, dated 
1675, p. 32, will be found the follow- 
ing " Laid out for John Cornelis and 
Marton Marteson, (Morton Morton- 
son,) one piece or parcel of land, where- 
on they now dwell, situate, lying and 
being on y^ west side of Delaware river, 
and on a creek which cometh out of 
said river, commonly known and called 
Amsland or Mill Kill, beginning at a 
small Stony Run which divides this land 
from Henrick Johnson's and Bartol 
Escoll's (land) running into the woods 
N. W. and W. 320 p. to a corner mark- 
ed black oak, standing by a creek J/i?^/^- 
oronipattc, then along the several 
courses of the creek to the mouth there- 
of 320 p., then along Mill creek to the 
first place of beginning, 300 p. laid out 
for 728 acres more or less." The words 
in parentheses are Dr. Smith's, see his 
history, p. 522. 

In a suit at Upland, in 1672, the 
name is written Martin Martinson. In 
a petition to the General Assembly in 
1709, Patent Book No. i, p. 565, are 
the names of Morton, Anders, John 
and LorsMorteson ; and in a document 
on file in the office of the Secretary of 
State, at Albany, N. Y., 1672, the name 
is written Morten Mortenson. It is 
conceded that this name has now be- 
come Morton in this country. 

Morton Mortonson, by name, a 
Swede, resided as early as 1655, on his 
plantation at Ammesland, in Ridley 
township in Chester (now Delaware) 
county, in Pennsylvania, and was still 
living there May 24, 1703, when by 
deed addressed " To all Xtian People," 
bearing date that dav and delivered the 



next in open court, conveyed to his son 
Matthias Morton, but reserving a main- 
tainance for himself and wife during 
their natural lives, " all and all manner 
of my estate undisposed of, as Goods and 
chattels, Depts, Implements of House- 
hold stuff of nature what kind or quali- 
ity soever," &c., "together with my 
plantation at Amosland afores** with 
all the clear lands, feilds, fences, woods, 
underwoods, meadows, swamps, crip- 
ples* and three hundred fifty seven 
acres & a halfe ac'' of land to the s'^ 
Plantacon now belonging and in pos- 
session of me y® said Morton Mor- 
tonson. Together with one Moiety or 
half of all my lands in West Jersey 
to be equally divided between my 
s'* son Matthias Morton and my son 
Andreas Morton &:c. * * giving 
and delivering unto my s** son Matthias 
Morton, one Pewter Dish with a turf 
of land upon it in full seizen and peace- 
ful and quiet possession of the whole 
premises." Recorded Dec. 25, 171 2, 
Deed Book A. 231, West Chester. The 
present D. B. is a copy, and the above 
is entered in it at p. 340, and is signed 
with a simple " x" mark, but the origi- 
nal deed mark may not have been cor- 
rectly copied. Immediately preceding 
this is a eked dated 20th of March, 
1694-5, from Andreas Johnson, late of 
Amosland, Husbandman, to Morton 
Mortonson of Amosland, by which 
Johnson conveys for ;^4o, "All and 
every part and parcell of my Land, 
cleared and uncleared, being & being 
in y^ Township of Ridle & place called 
Amasland ; Resurveyed togather with 



* Cripple, as applied to land, means, — ist, 
both in law and fact, a marshy piece of 
ground with the timber cut off, and in an un- 
improved condition. 2d. The flats or land 
lying between high and low water mark on 
a river side, formed by natural deposits or 
otherwise. \st Wliarton'' s Reports, 535. 



13( 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



the Land of y" s'' Morton Mortonson 
by Charles Ashcom the Eight day of 
y" fifth month 1683; And since sur- 
veied & divided into several Lotts by 
Robert Longshore ; the s'^ Lotts Bounds 
at y" one end with John Simcock Land, 
y" other end with Mucanippott & 
Darby Creek ; Joyning & Bounded on 
every side of y* s** Lotts with y^ Land 
of y' s** Morton Mortonson ; The said 
Lotts & Tract of Land Hereby Granted 
& sold to y" s^ Morton Mortonson, his 
heirs & assigns Containing; upon y" 
sccurcity sur\-ey by Robert Longshore, 
Two hundred seventy & five acres of 
Land." 

Among the list of taxables at Cal- 
koens Hock in 1677, are Mort Mor- 
tens, Jujiior, Mort Mortense, Senior, 
and Lace Mortens, and in the list of 
Swedish inhabitants on the Delaware 
previous to May 31, 1693, made for the 
King of Sweden, Acre/ms, 191, will 
be found the names of Marten Martens- 
son, Junior, 10 in family. Marten Mar- 
tensson. Senior, 3 persons in his family, 
and Mats Martenson, 4 in family, and 
there is also Marten Knutsson, (that is. 
Marten, the son of Knut or Canute,) 
with 6 in family. 

There were two persons of the name 
of Morton Mortonson, distinguished 
by the addition o^ Junior and Senior, 
in the lists, but not in the deeds and 
other papers, so it is simply impossi- 
ble at this date to say whether they 
were father and son or not, although 
it is probable they were. The above 
deed of May 24, 1703, of Morton 
Mortonson to his two sons Matthias 
and Andreas, shows that at that date 
there were three in his family, and he 
had not provided for these sons, and that 
he was the senior of that name. This 
Morton Mortonson, speaks of himself, 
and is spoken of, as of Ammesland ; 



while the other Morton Mortonson, 
in his will dated Nov. i, 1718, and 
registered Jan. i, 1 718, at West Ches- 
ter, calls himself " 0/ Calking Hook,'' 
and names in his will his children, 
David, Andrew, John, Matthias, Kath- 
arine and Margaret. * To David he 
leaves all his estate real and personal, 
and cufs the rest off with a shilling 
each. No doubt he had provided for 
them before. It will be perceived, 
that M. M., Jr., had 10 members in 
his family, according to list of Swedes 
on the Delaware, so M. M., ^ Calk- 
ing Hook, was M. M., Jr. But this 
having been doubted by several writers, 
I have, in endeavoring to solve the 
question whether it was Mortonson, 
junior or senior, who died in 17 18, 
consulted J. Smith Futhey, Esq., who 
found on record at West Chester, four 
deeds made by Morton Mortonson, of 
Colran Hooke, to his sons, all dated 
Dec. 29, 1708, one to Laurence, one 
to John, and one to Andrew Morton- 
son, each for 300 acres, in Philadel- 
phia County, east of the Schuylkill, 
all described as part of a tract of 1200 
acres granted to "one of the said 
Swedes, Morton Morton," by William 
Penn, by patent dated Oct. 20, 1701, 
and enrolled in Rolls Office at Phila- 
delphia in Patent Book A, No. i, p. 
565. I suppose that this Patent is but 
a confirmation of a former title of cer- 
tain lands before granted to Morton 
Morton and other Swedes. The fourth 
deed bearing the same date is to Lau- 
rence Mortonson, for 60 acres, in Cal- 
kan Hook ; all these deeds are signed 
by Morton Mortonson by a peculiar 
mark, but unlike the usual X. 

There arc also of record two deeds 
made by Morton Mortonson, of Darby, 
in 1716; one to Hans Boon, the other 
to John Broom. These are signed 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



137 



without any mark, at least the record 
indicates none. This seems to show 
that the Mortonson who made the 
deeds to his son in 1 708, and signed 
with his mark, was, probably, not' the 
Morton Mortonson who made the above 
deeds in' 1716. These latter deeds 
are for lands in Darby, they recite the 
title of the land as conveyed to said 
M. M., by a man whose name appears 
to be Ohson, (probably Olsson, as in 
the list in Acrelius, there is a Hans 
Olsson,) by deed dated April 10, 1683. 
The deed to Broom, is made by Mor- 
ton Mortonson and Margaret his wife. 
That to Boon, although made at the 
same time and by the same M. M., 
does not refer to his wife and is not 
signed by her. 

The Will of Morton Mortonson, dat- 
ed Nov. I, 1 718, is signed with the 
peculiar mark like the deeds of Dec. 
26, 1708, and does not mention his 
son Laurence at all. This is. account- 
ed for, however, by the fact that Lau- 
rence had already been provided for. 

There is also of record, a deed of 
Morton Morton to Jonas Morton, dated 
Feb. 8, 1 741-2, for 126 acres in Ames- 
land, in Ridley, which recites, that Mat- 
thias Morton was in his lifetime seized 
of a certain tract of land, meadows, 
marshes, swampsand cripples, situate in 
Amesland and in the township of Rid- 
ley, and being so seized thereof died 
intestate, leaving five sons and two 
daughters, viz., Andrew, Morton, John, 
Peter, Matthias, Mary and Christiana. 
It then recites the vesting of the title 
of the two brothers and sisters in one 
of them, Morton Morton, the grantor; 
also, that Mary married John Stolcup 
and Christiana married Samuel Peter- 
son. Morton Morton's will is on re- 
cord, proved June i, 1781 ; he had 
only one child, Rebecca Boon. 



Mr. Futhey says, in view of his re- 
searches, ' ' If these two Morton Mor- 
tonsons were different men, they were 
cotemporaries. The one who made 
the deeds of 1716, and had a wife 
Margaret, and who is recited as of 
Darby, purchased in 1683, and the 
other one who signed with his peculiar 
mark, and who died in 1718, got his by 
Patent in 1 701, at least, the land he 
conveyed." The question of the re- 
lationship of the two Mortonson's, ju- 
nior and senior, I fail to solve ; I leave 
it as a nut for future local historians to 
crack. 

Andrew Morton died intestate, and 
letters of administration were granted 
to his wife, Margaret Morton, Nov. 8, 
1722. In 1732, Matthias Morton, ex- 
ecutor of Laurence Morton, of Darby, 
filed his account. The widow's name 
was Bridget, and Morton Mortonson 
was paid for nursing. Laurence's will 
is indexed in Register's office, Phil- 
adelphia, thus : — " Filed, Chester Co., 
Morton Laurence, filed [at Philadel- 
phia] 1 713, p. 171, Will-book D," but 
there is no such will entered at the page 
indicated, or on file in the office, nor 
can it be found at West Chester. Mat- 
thias Morton also died intestate, and 
letters were granted to Bridget Morton, 
Dec. 9, 1736. 

I have a copy of the will of John 
Morton, son of Morton Mortonson, of 
" Calking Hook," and father of John 
Morton, the signer; so this family is 
of Swedish descent. 

John Morton, the father of the signer, 
married Mary, the daughter of John 
(incorrectly William by authors) and 
Gertrude Archer, of Ridley. They 
had but the one son, and the father 
died sometime between the date of 
his will, Feb. 6, 1724-5, and its pro- 
bate, 12 mo. 20, 1724-5. In his will 



188 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



he leaves all his projjerty to his wife, 
Marv, during her widowhood, and if 
she should have a child "of both our 
bodies lawfully begotten," the estate 
was to descend to him, if not, then 
"my lands shall be equally divided 
between my brother George Culin's 
sons by my sisfe/- Margaret, — John, 
George, Morton, Daniel, Jonas, to 
them and their heirs forever." Mar- 
garet and John were two of the chil- 
dren of Morton Mortonson, who died 
in 1718.* 

John Morton, the signer, was not 
born until after his father's death, 
sometime early in the year 1725, the 
exact date is unknown. His mother 
survived him, but died the same or 
the next year ; both their wills were 
proven Aug. 26, 1778. The widow 
married John Sketchley, an English 
yeoman, who came over to America 
in 1 718 and settled in Ridley in 1724, 
and died in 1753, without issue. His 
step-son, in remembrance of his kind- 
ness, named a son Sketchley, who was 
a Major in the Revolutionary army, 
and a man of note in his day and 
generation. His signature may be seen 
on the State bills of credit, which are 
now only curiosities. 

John Morton, (the signer,) married 
Ann Justis, and had issue three sons 
and five daughters. He was a member 
of the Provincial Assembly for 1 1 years 
from 1756. Justice of the Peace and 

••>' The will of John Archer of Ridley, is dated 
Nov. g, 1738, and proven Sept. 19, 1740. In 
it he mentions sons (junner, John, Adam, Jacob, 
daughters Eleanor and Eli/.aheth ArcheV, and 
j^rand-children John Morton, John and Mary 
Waldrum and Christian Archer. 

The will of his widow, Gertrude, is dated 
Nov. 9, 1748, and proven the 29th of the same 
month. She mentions son Jacob and dau<i;h- 
ters Catharine Peterson, Mary Sketchley, Ellen 
Jones and Elizabeth Simcock ; also grand- 
children Mary and Martha Archer, daus. of 
-Vdam and John Morton. 



of the Courts for Chester Coimty in 
1757, Sheriff in 1767 and '68. Iw 
1765, he was a member of the first 
Congress at New York. In 1774, was 
re-elected, and again elected the third 
time in 1776. Hewasamember of the 
first Convention to frame a Constitu- 
tion for the Commonwealth of Penn- 
sylvania, July 15, 1776. In 1772-3-4- 
5, he was elected a member of the As- 
sembly, and in the latter year elected 
Speaker of that body. In 1774, he 
was appointed an Associate Judge of 
the Supreme Provincial Court of Penn- 
sylvania, and was the last appointment 
in that Court under the old order of 
things. He died in Dec, 1777, in 
the 54th year of his age. 

The biographical sketches of John 
Morton, are so full that it is not ne- 
cessary for me here to enter that por- 
tion of his life and services which is 
satisfactorily set forth in them. There 
was a sketch of his life published in 
the Village Record of West Chester, 
written by Dr. Darlington, some years 
ago, in which the writer differs from 
family traditioti that John Morton gave 
the casting vote of this Province for 
the Declaration, a statement which 
seems to be confirmed by Gov. Mc- 
Kean's letter, written in 181 2, and also 
affirmed in Sanderson' s Biographies 
of the Signers, 6 vol. 211, &c. Dr. 
Smith's criticism of the letter in the 
Republican, some years ago, was an 
able paper, but threw no new light on 
disputed points. He says, the New 
York delegation did not vote, but it 
did for all that, and the Assembly of 
that Colony afterwards, on July 9th, 
confirmed their action. The whole 
thirteen Colonies voted on the 4th of 
July, 1776, and their vote was in favor 
of the Declaration. 

John Adams, in writing to liis daiigh- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



139 



ter from Philadelphia, July 5, 1777, 
says: " Yesterday being the Anniver- 
sary of American Independence, was 
celebrated here with a festivity and 
ceremony becoming the occasion." 
So there appears to have been no 
doubt in Philadelphia in 1777, that 
the 4th of July was, really, our Inde- 
pendence day. 

In the Journals of Congress pub- 
lished by its order in 1777, 2 vol. 240, 
and also in FolwelV s edit., 2 vol. 228, 
it will be found stated that, 

" Agreeable to the order of the day, July 3, 
1776, the Congress resolved itself into a com- 
mittee of the whole, to take into their further 
consideration, the Declaration, and after some 
time the President resumed the chair, and Mr. 
Harrison reported that the Committee not 
yet having gone throug-h it, desired leave to 
sit again. 

" Resolved, That this Congress will again 
to-morrow, resolve itself into a committee of 
the whole, to take into consideration the De- 
claration of Independence. 

"July 4th, 1776. Agreeable to the order 
of the day, the Congress resolved itself into 
the committee of the whole, to take into their 
further consideration the Declaration, and after 
sometime the President resumed the chair, and 
Mr. Harrison reported that the committee had 
agreed to a Declaration, which they desired 
him to report."' 

The Declaration is inserted in full 
in the Journal ; see also Foltueir s ed., 
p. 229. And at the end thereof, ' ' The 
foregoing Declaration was by order of 
Congress engrossed and signed'^ by the 
following members, in all fifty-four : 
New Hampshire, 3 ; Massachusetts 
Bay, 4 ; Rhode Island, 2 ; Connecti- 
cut, 4 ; New York, 4 ; New Jersey, 5 ; 
Pennsylvania, 9 ; Delaware, 2 ; Mary- 
land, 4 ; Virginia, 7 ; North Carolina, 

* When the engrossed copy was signed is 
not known precisely. The original, in Jeffer- 
son's handwriting, was not signed ; it is in 
possession of the American Philosophical So- 
ciety. I 
19 



3 ; South Carolina, 4, and Georgia, 3. 
The names of Pennsylvanians signing 
are, Robert Morris, Benjamin Frank- 
lin, John Morton, George Clymer, 
James Smith, George Taylor, James 
Wilson, Benjamin Rush and George 
Ross. 

" Resolved, That copies of the Declaration 
be sent to the several Assemblies, Conventions 
and Committees or Councils of Safety, and to 
the several Commanding Officers of the Con- 
tinental Troops ; that it be proclaimed in each 
of the United States, and at the head of the 
Army." 

In Philadelphia, pursuant to the last 
resolution, the Committee of Safety of 
Pennsylvania, ordered the Declaration 
to be read at the State House, on Mon- 
day, July 8, 1776, at 12 o'clock, and 
it was read on that day, from a stage 
erected in the State House yard, by 
John Nixon, a son-in-law of Robert 
Morris. The bells were rung all 
day, and almost all night ; and the 
Royal insignia of authority were re- 
moved from the State House and 
burnt. If the New York delegation 
had not voted on the 4th in favor of 
the Declaration, how could it have 
been promulgated on the 8th, in Phil- 
adelphia, as the unanimous Declara- 
tion of the United Colonies? 

The old family tradition, which I 
heard in boyhood, and to which I 
have before referred, was to this effect: 
That the vote of Congress upon the 
adoption of the Declaration was taken 
by Colonies, each delegation voting 
separately, the majority thereof decid- 
ing the vote of each Colony they re- 
presented. Six Colonies had voted in 
favor of, and six against the measure, 
leaving the Pennsylvania delegation the 
last to vote, which they proceeded to 
do, and the result was a tie, John Mor- 
ton and several others being absent. 



14U 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



At this moment Morton cntcrcil the 
Hall, and decided the vote of Penn- 
sylvania and of the Colonies, in fiivor 
of tlic Declaration, and it was then 
made unanimous, as to Colonies, hut 
not as to delegations. 

The above old famil)- tradition, I 
have heard repeated again and again, 
by old members of the families of 
Morton, Crosby, Hill, Mcllvain and 
others, and it has only been of late 
years that I have heard it doubted. 
The whole occurrence is so like what 
takes place in deliberative assemblies, 
that I see no cause to doubt it. And 
despite the published journals of the 
Congress, (which contain only final 
results,) it may be truQ in every parti- 
cular, for the members were sworn to 
secrecy, and the preliminary occurren- 
ces regarding the vote are not record- 
ed on the minutes. 

Morton, being chairman of the Penn- 
sylvania delegation, naturally gave the 
casting vote ; we know he gave it in 
favor of the Declaration. His dying 
w^ords evidently had reference to his 
vote as having been decisive on the 
question, else they had little or no 
meaning, as he would have done no 
more than any other representative, 
who was in favor of the measure. It 
is claimed that this final vote of Mor- 
ton, was the reason why Pennsylvania 
has been styled the Keystone State. 
I know no other good reason for the 
appellation. 

Among some specimens of Conti- 
nental money and Provincial currency, 
I have one of the denomination of 
"Thirty Shillings," printed by Hall 
& Sellers, 1775, as is stated on the re- 
verse, which is surrounded by a border, 
having within it a dark space, one and 
a half inches long, by an inch and 
seven-eighths wide, two leaves, and 



:|: t. :i:'j^_ y]^^. ,■^Q^^, \s T,jj iuchcs long, 
by 2j4 wide. The face is surrounded 
by a bortler nearly a quarter of an inch 
in width. Within the top and bottom 
borders are the words "Thirty Shil- 
lings," in black letters. The side 
borders are ornamental work. On the 
right centre is engraven the Royal 
Arms of Great Britain, under which 
are five royal crowais, perfect, and one 
half formed, under these the w^ords 
"Thirty Shill." At the left heading 
are five diamonds within each four 
leaves, forming a cross, or within four 
lozenges, a quarter foil each. After these 
"No. 7448," figures and the printed 
words "Thirty Shillings According to 
the Resolves of the Assembly of Penn- 
sylvania of the 1 8th day of November, 
in the i6th year of the Reign of his 
majesty George the Third. Dated at 
Philadelphia, the 6th of December, 
1775, l'>." and signed in their i)roper 
handwriting by " E. Price, Nich's 
Fairlamb. Sketchley Morton." 

The credit issues of the Provinces, 
were properly called after the Colony 
making the issue, as " Pennsylvania 
currency," "New York currency," 
&c. And the bills of the United Col- 
onies were called " Continental mo- 
ney." But in the laws of Pennsylva- 
nia, its issues are styled " The paper 
Bills of Credit of this State." See i 
Laws of Pa., 763. The Act states, 
" That all Bills of Credit issued by any 
Act of General Assembly of Pennsyl- 
vania, struck under the sanction or 
authority of Great Britian, on or be- 
fore the 19th of April, A. D. 1775," 
which shall not be brought in or ex- 
changed before a day named, shall be 
irredeemable, except, &c. Most of 
these bills had endorsed on them the 
ominous warning, "To Counterfeit 
IS Dkath." 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



141 



XIV. 

Dr. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, 
in speaking of a visit he and Dr. Charles 
Magnus Von Wrangel made to the 
Swedish families near and at Tena- 
kum, says: "July 29, 1761. We lodg- 
ed with an Englishman, Mr. John 
Taylor. * * His pious wife was the 
daughter of a Brandenburger, Mary 
Niedermark, but her mother was a 
Swede, who had lived on this island. 
* '^' On Thursday, we visited the 
place of the first graveyard, where we 
found mouldering remains of bodies, 
and of the first Christian church in this 
western wilderness. In the afternoon, 
accompanied by some friends, we rode 
back to Squire Morton's, at Ammes- 
land. A meeting was appointed there to 
consult about a new Swedish church." 
Acrelius, 348. Probably the church 
at Kingsessing. John Morton, the 
signer, was appointed a Justice of the 
Peace and of the Courts, in 1757, and 
his residence at Ammasland was, pro- 
bably, the dilapidated old log house 
still standing though uninhabited, at 
Morris' Ferry, on Darby Creek. Re- 
ference cannot be made to the house 
he built on the west side of Stone 
Creek, now in Ridley Park, where he af- 
terwards resided. This house was built 
of stone, in 1764, and has the signer's 
initials and those of his wife, with the 
date cut on a circular marble tablet 
set in its southern gable, in full view 
of the passing trains on the Baltimore 
Railroad. The situation was origi- 
nally very retired. It is to be regret- 
ted that there exists no portrait of our 
Signer of the Declaration. 

John Morton, the signer, niarrietl 
Ann Justis, of Chester County, and 
they had issue, as appears by his will 
duly registered at West Chester, Aug. 



I 26, 1 778, three sons and five daughters j 
I i\AR0N, Sketchley, John, Mary, 
Sarah, Lydia, Ann, and Elizabeth. 
I. Aaron Morton, was initiated in 
Chester Lodge, No. 69, A. Y. M., Jan. 
30, 1798, under the name of Aaron 
Moreton. He married Frances, dau. 
of Richard and Elizabeth (Paschall) 
Armitt ; their children were Benjamin, 
John, Mary Ann and Richard ; they 
all left issue except Richard, who died 
unmarried. Mary Ann married her 
cousin Richard Marshall, and had a 
son, Morton, and two daughters ; one 
of them, Margaret, married a Mr. Wil- 
liams, the other was named Frances 
Ann Marshall. I know nothing fur- 
ther in regard to the rest of the chil- 
dren, as all the family removed to Ohio 
I over 50 years ago. 

Richard Armitt, above mentioned, 
had a sister, Mary, who married 
Thomas Bell. Fanny (Armitt,) Mor- 
ton had two sisters, Margaret, who 
married Jacob Marshall, of West Brad- 
ford, Chester County, and Sarah, who 
married Samuel Worth, of East Brad- 
ford. Margaret Pyle, a daughter of 
the former, lives in West Chester, 
while the sons and grandsons of the 
latter own near 900 acres of good land 
in East Bradford, near Marshallton. 
Much of this information was obtained 
from John Worth, one of the sons. 
Aaron Morton, before his removal 
to Ohio, lived in the former resi- 
dence of his father at Ridley Park. 
Peter Hill, of Ridley, late of Lenni 
MiHs, who married Rebecca, a daugh- 
ter of Charles and Mary (Morton) 
Justis, lived in this house after Aaron 
Morton moM'd out WV'st, and liere 
his wife died in a dec line, Jeaxing an 
infant son, which also died, and Peter 
becoming embarrassed, his life estate 
in the property which belonged to 



142 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



liis witV. was sold to l^lwanl Home. 
No doubt but that my old friend Justis 
Morton, son of Justis, who is a com- 
l)Ositor in the office of the Delaware 
County Republican, is a descendant of 
the Mortons of Ridley. 

2. Sketchley Morton, 2nd son of 
the signer, was a Major in the Pennsyl- 
vania Line of the Revolutionary army, 
and died in 1795. His signature can 
be seen on the State Bills of Credit, 
issued according to the resolves of the 
Assembly, Nov. 18, 1775, the i6th year 
of the reign of his majesty George III. 
Among the members of the Provincial 
Conference which met at Carpenter's 
Hall, in Philadelphia, June 18, 1776, 
relative to calling a Convention to 
adopt a form of State government, will 
be seen the names of the following 
from Chester County : Major Sketch- 
ley Morton, Col. Richard Thomas, 
Major William Evans, Major Caleb 
Davis, Col. Thomas Hockley, Elisha 
Price, Esq., Col. William Montgom- 
ery, Mr. Samuel Fairlamb, Col. Hugh 
Lloyd, Richard Reiley, Esq., Col. 
Evan Evans, Col. Lewis Grono, and 
Captain Thomas Levis. 

Major Morton became embarrassed 
financially before he died, by endors- 
ing for his friends, and his property 
was sold to pay their debts. 

Amosland, is the name now given to 
the property owned by Thomas T. 
Tasker, directly opposite the "White 
Horse Tavern," in Ridley, and is a 
portion of the ancient tract so-called. 
There can be no doubt but that the 
Major owned a part of the Ammasland 
tract, (a part is owned now by his 
grandson and namesake. Judge Mor- 
ton, at Morris' Ferry on Darby Creek.) 
On examination of the Sheriff's con- 
veyances, I found that Ezekiel Leon- 
;ird. Sheriff, sold in Ridk'\- 72 '4 acres, 



as the proi)crty of Sketchley Morton, 
by a Venditioni to November term, 
1787, at the suit of Wm. Black alias 
Carpenter ; and the levy is upon " two 
messuages or tenements and one plan- 
tation and tract of land situate in the 
township of Ridley, bounded by lands 
of Joseph Pearson, Aaron Morton and 
others, containing 88 acres, more or 
less." The record of the conveyance 
is as follows : " Ezekiel Leonard, Esq. , 
High Sheriff, acknowledges the exe- 
cution of a deed dated the i6th of 
Nov., 1787, to Elisha Price, of the 
Borro of Chester, in the County of 
Chester, Esquire, for a certain mes- 
suage or tenement, plantation and tract 
or parcel of land situate, lying and 
being in the township of Ridley and 
county aforesaid, containing 72 acres 
and a half, more or less, late the estate 
of Sketchley Morton," &c. 

I extract the following from an item 
entitled, "Ridley Notes," in the Re- 
publican of March 20, 1874. 

" Moving day among us is at hand, 
and many are preparing for the change. 
I notice the removal of Henry Shell- 
drake to the farm now owned by the 
Ridley Park Association, and which 
belonged a century ago, to John Mor- 
ton, the signer of the Declaration of 
Independence. Williani H. Price will 
remove from his old homestead, for- 
merly the " Plough" tavern, where he 
has lived over 50 years, to the late re- 
sidence of William H. Gesner, at Nor- 
wood, which he has purchased. The 
old " Plough " tavern was built during 
the reign of Queen Anne, by one of the 
family of Hendrickson, who owned a 
good deal of land at and above the mouth 
of Crum Creek. It was purchased by 
John Morton, the signer, about 1765; 
at his death his son, Sketchley, grand- 
father of the present Hon. Sketchley 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



143 



Morton, of Springfield, became the 
owner. He sold it in 1785. to Joseph 
Pearson, who, dying in 1803, bequeath- 
ed it to his son, John L. Pearson, who, 
at his death in 1842, bequeathed it to 
William H. Price. The house was kept 
as a tavern long before and during the 
Revolutionary war, and was so con- 
tinued until 1820, when John L. Pear- 
son moved into it and took down the 
sign." 

Major Sketchley Morton, married 
Rebecca, daughter of John and Mary 
(Niedermark) Taylor, of Tinicum. 
She was born June 19, 1757. They 
had issue, Charles, Rebecca, Ann, of 
whom I have no information, Aaron- 
Taylor and John S. Morton. After 
the death of the Major, his widow mar- 
ried a Mr. Miller ; and after his death, 
resided with herson, John S., in Spring- 
field, at the place now called Morton, 
on the Philadelphia and West Chester 
railroad, where she died March 28, 
1 819, in her 77th year. 

Aaron Taylor Morton, son of Major 
Sketchley and Rebecca, married Ann 
Peirce, daughter of John and Sarah 
Lane Crosby of Ridley, b. Dec. 31, 
1795, issue — Sarah, Albert, Charles 
Justis, Annie, Rebecca, Mary, Eliza, 
John and Ellen . He was a well-known 
man in the county in his day ; a pri- 
vate in Capt. Anderson's company in 
1814; and died at his residence in 
Ridley Park, at the 12th mile-stone 
from Philadelphia, on June 6, 1840. 
After his death, his widow married 
Edward Home, a near neighbor. She 
died May 27, 1872, during her se- 
cond widowhood. Sarah, their eldest 
daughter, m. William Mcllvain, of 
Reading. Their son, Howard, b. Oct. 
26, 1834, was junior ist Lieut, in Dur- 
rell's Battery, 104 Pa. Vols., and was 
dreadfully and mortally wounded in 



battle, and died at Warrington, Va., 
Nov. 15, 1862. He was a noble and 
gallant young officer, much beloved 
by his comrades in the army and friends 
at home — Diilce et decorum est pro 
patria mori. The other children's 
names are Morton, William, Spencer, 
and Annie Mcllvain. 

Dr. Charles J. Morton, son of Aaron 
T. and Ann P., is a practising physi- 
cian, residing in Chester, and has been 
twice married. His second wife, is 
Anna E., daughter of Moses Coates, 
of Chester County. His sister Annie 
;//. John Clark, and Eliza vi. John 
Noble, of Ridley, June 5, 1838; Al- 
bert, John and Ellen, died young ; 
Mary m. William Miller, of Chester 
County, Pa. ; Rebecca ni. Richard 
Harper, of Ridley. 

John S. Morton, late of Springfield, 
son of (Major) Sketchley and Rebecca, 
b. Feb. 21, 1780, d. Dec, 2, 1857, m. 
June 30, 1803, Susannah, daughter of 
Judge John Crosby and Ann Peirce 
his wife, of Ridley. She was b. Feb. 
16, 1786, d. April 9, 1857; they had 
issue, Ann Crosby, Rebecca Taylor, 
Susan Crosby, Sketchley, John Crosby, 
Ellen Elizabeth, Crosby Peirce, Frank- 
lin H. who died in infancy, and Catha- 
rine Plummer Morton. 

Ann Crosby Morton,/;. Aug. 2, 1804, 
d. Mar., 1866, m. Dr. Ellis C. Harlan, 
of Ridley,- March 5, 1824; he was a 
talented and able physician, but died 
without issue. May 4, 1826, aged 28 
years ; and his widow married Jere- 
miah Mcllvain, of Ridley, son of Jere- 
miah and Elizabeth, March 8, 1833, 
and had issue, George and Annie. 
They removed to Darlington, Har- 
ford County, Maryland, where George 
married Rachel, daughter of Dr. Sam- 
uel and Susanna G. Ramsey, and has 
three sons, John, Morton, and an 



144 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



infant. Mis sister, Annie Mcllvain, 
is unniarrietl. 

Rebecca Taylor Morton, /'. May 
31st, 1807, m. John D. Pearce, a 
plumber, of Philadelphia, a widower 
with four children ; they had issue, 
Emma, who married James Young, of 
Chester County; they have Morton, 
Harry, Laura and Thomas Young. 
Rebecca, m. Thomas H. Maddock, 
Esq., of Ridley, and has three sons, 
Harry, Charlton and Edgar. Susanna 
Crosby^ unmarried. Eliza Crosby, m. 
Harry Valentine, of Chester Co., and 
have a daughter Susan. Ellen Eliza- 
beth, b. Oct. 10, 1834, (i. Oct. 3, 1853. 
Sketchlcy Morton Pcarcc, a minister 
of the Presbyterian Church, who mar- 
ried Susan McNeal, daughter of John, 
of Chester County, of Scotch-Irish de- 
scent ; they have a son named after 
his father. Antiie Crosby Pearce, in. 
Dec. 17, 1874, George W. Jones, of 
Altoona, Pa. Kate Morion Pearce, 
m. Wesley Miles, of Chester. 

Susan Crosby Morton, vi. John 
Spencer Mcllvain, of Ridley, they had 
one son, Edward, who died Nov. 13, 
1856, single. 

Sketchlev Morton, of Morton, 
Springfield, b. Oct. 12, 1810, late an 
Associate Judge of the Courts of Del- 
aware County, is an active and j)rom- 
inent man in the county. He married 
March 5, 1834, Elizabeth Annesley, 
daughter of Benjamin and Elizabeth 
Newlin, d. i mo. i, 1872, in her 58th 
year, leaving issue, John S., Benjamin 
N., Elizabeth N., Sketchley, Annes- 
ley, Susan and Mary Morton ; twins by 
the names of Crosby and Hattie died 
in infancy. John S., m. Eleanor 
Baker, and has living two children, 
Elizabeth and Virginia. He was for- 
merly a conveyancer, and is now Pre- 
sident of the West Philadelphia Pas- 



senger Railway Company, and resides 
in Philadeljjhia. Benjamin N., ;//. 
Mary, dau. of John L. Passmore, of 
Paschal; secondly, Mary Farson, dau. 
of John and Susan, by whom he had 
issue, Sketchley, Jr., John Farson 
Annesley, and Benjamin N. , Jr., de- 
ceased. Elizabeth N., m. Rev. John 
Pleasanton Du Hamel, Rector of the 
Episcopal Church of the '^Beloved 
Disciple^'" Philadelphia; they have 
issue, William and Fanny. Sketchley 
Morton, Jr., h. March 2, 1842, died 
in the U. S. Service, Nov. 12, 1862, 
at Port Royal, S. C, of yellow fever, 
as ist Eieut. 97th Pa. Vols. Annes- 
ley Newlin Morton, conveyancer, Phil- 
adelphia, m. Elizabeth Day, dau. of 
Henry and Virginia, they have a son, 
John. Annesley N. was 2d Lt. 97th 
Pa. Vols., resigned — afterwards ist Lt. 
of the Anderson Cavalry. His sister, 
Susan, m. Isaac M. Lewis ; and Mary 
;//. J. Ridgeway Bunting, and has a 
daughter, Susie. 

John Crosby Morton, fifth child of 
John S. and Susannah, b. Nov. 30, 
181 2, d. Nov. 25, 1841, ;;/. Elizabeth 
Worrall, of Delaware County, left is- 
sue, Jeremiah and Ellen Crosby Mor- 
ton. 

Ellen Elizabeth Morton m. Wil- 
liam Wright, plumber, late Pres. of the 
West Philadelphia Passenger R. R. Co. 
He died Oct. 9, 1863, leaving William 
Morton, (who maried Marion Mullen, 
of Philadelphia, and have issue, Flor- 
ence Gilbert and Wm. Edwin), Ellen 
E., Crosby Morton, Clara, and Her- 
man Lombaert. William M. and Cros- 
by M. Wright, are plumbers, and their 
establishment is at the N. W. cor. of 
nth and Walnut Sts., Philadelphia. 

Crosby P. Morton, seventh child of 
John S. and Susannah, b. Nov. 27, 
1 81 9, d. at his residence in Chester, 



HISTORY OF CIIESTEK. 



145 



July 1 6, 1870. He was an active bus- 
iness man, full of life and energy, 
and did much to promote the interests 
of Chester ; the old Queen's Road 
was named Morton Avenue, as much 
in his honor, as that of his distin- 
guished ancestor. He m. his cousin, 
Sarah Ann Lownes, of Springfield, 
♦laughter of John and Rebecca. He 
left surviving him his widow and a 
daughter, Susanna, who w. J. Frank 
Black, of Chester, and had issue, 
Crosby Morton and Sarah Lownes 
Black J the latter d. Jan. 9, 1876, aged 
2 years and 5 months. 

Catharine Plummer Morton, the 
youngest child of John S. and Susannah, 
}n. David S. Brown, Jr., of Philad'a, 
and has six children, Mary Thornton, 
Susan Morton, John M., Crosby M., 
Ellen Elizabeth and Wm. Lewis Brown. 
Mary T., m. Newbold R. Haines, of 
Philadelphia, and has one child. Susan 
Morton, tn. Herbert A. Pennock, Sept. 
7, 1876. 

Dr. John Morton, 3d son of the 
signer, was a Surgeon in the Continen- 
t-al Army. He died while a prisoner 
of war, on board of one of the British 
Prison Ships, "The Falmouth," in 
New York harbor. The late John S. 
Morton of Springfield, had for some- 
time a letter in his possession, written 
by Dr. Morton to his father, while he 
was a prisoner, in which he said they 
were almost starved, and could eat 
brickbats if they could get them. The 
letter was given to a collector of auto- 
graphs, and maybe in some private col- 
lection. He was unmarried. 

Concerning Sarah and Lydia daugh- 
ters of the signer, nothing is known, 
except that it is said a " Dr. Currie," 
married one of them, and "Governor 
Bibb," the other. 

Elizabeth, daughter of the signer. 



died of consumption at the residence 
of her brother Aaron, in Ridley, be- 
fore he moved west. My aunt, Ann C. 
Smith, recollects the event perfectly. 

Mary Morton (4th child of the sign- 
er,) married Charles Justis of Kingses- 
sing, where they resided all their lives 
and died, and their remains were buried 
in the old grave-yard of the Swedes 
church at that place, now called St. 
James Church. On his tombstone is 
this inscription : "Deposited in Hope ! 
Here resteth Charles Justis, who died 
Jan. loth, A. D. 1789, aged 34 years 
& 3 months. ' ' There is a space where 
his wife is buried alongside his grave, 
but no stone covers her remains. She 
died suddenly in the harvest field, 
where she had gone to oversee her men 
at work, some years after her husband's 
death. Sheleft four children, Charles, 
John M., Rebecca, and Mary ; the lat- 
ter died unmarried. Charles, m. Elea- 
nor Maddock of Chester, they had two 
children, Charles and Jesse Maddock 
Justis. Their mother died in 1820, 
and their father in 1835, and lie side by 
side in the old grave-yard of St. Paul's, 
Chester. Their son Jesse M. , died Oct. 
24, 1845, ^^^ li^s by their side. He 
was at one time in the dry-goods busi- 
ness at Chester, and married Lydia 
McLauchlin of Marcus Hook, daughter 
of William ; they had issue one child, 
which died at the age of one month. 
William McLauchlin was a tavern-keep- 
er and had several pretty daughters. Af- 
ter the death of Jesse, his widow Lydia, 
ni. a Capt. Walton, afterwards Henry 
May, both now deceased. 

Charles Justis, son of Charles and 
Eleanor, emigrated to California in the 
ship " Grey Eagle," when the " gold 
fever' ' first broke out in 1849. He now 
resides at Wheatland, in Yuba County, 
Cal. He married Charlotte McFerran, 



140 



ISTORY OF CHESTER. 



dan. of John Johnson Lynn, late of 
Brownsville, Pa.^ but who removed to 
the "Golden State," in 1853; they 
have four children, Eleanor Bella, Lynn 
Morton, Charles Eyre, and Theodore 
Jesse Justis. 

Johji M. /ustis, son of Charles and 
Mary, of Kingsessing, married Re- 
becca Worrall of Springfield, and had 
one son and four daughters. 

Rebecca Justis, dau. of Charles and 
Mary, was the first wife of Peter Hill 
of Ridley, late of Lenni Mills. They 
had but one child, a son, who died in 
infancy, and the mother died soon af- 
ter in a decline, at the old family resi- 
dence at Ridley Park. Peter Hill m. 
(2d,) July 31, 1824, Hannah, dau. of 
Nathan Sellers. 

Ann Morton, (7th child of the sign- 
er), married in 1784, Capt. John Davis, 
ofTredyifrin Township, Chester Coun- 
ty, Pa., son of Isaac and Elizabeth 
(Bartholomew , born in the year 1752. 
He entered the Continental service 
Nov. 15, 1776, as captain in the 9th 
Regt. of the Pennsylvania Line, and 
served until the close of the Revolu- 
tion. " SaffcWs Records of the Revo- 
lutionary War,'' pp. 396, 417. He 
was present at the surrender of Corn- 
wallis, when Gen. Lafayette took him 
by the hand and said : '' Captain Davis ! 
this is a happy day for America. ' ' Af- 
ter the war Captain Davis returned to 
the family estate near Paoli, where two 
generations of his ancestors had pre- 
viously resided, and became an Associ- 
ate Judge of the courts of Chester Coun- 
ty, which position he occupied until 
his death. All his life he took great 
interest in military affairs, and became 
a General of Militia, which fact is re- 
corded, I am informed, upon his tomb- 
stone. He was entitled under the dif- 
ferent acts of Congress to half pay, com- 



mutation and bounty land, but neither 
he nor his heirs have been able to ob- 
tain either. He was a member of the 
Society of Cincinnati, and left three 
diaries of the events of the Revolution- 
ary war, connected with his service, 
which are in possession of John W. 
Davis, of Oil City, Pa. An old sketch 
of the life of Captain Davis, says, among 
other things : " He was a man of note 
in his day and was one of the first to 
join General Wayne in raising a regi- 
ment immediately on the breaking out 
of the war. He served continuously 
till its close, bearing a full share of the 
hardships and dangers of eight cam- 
paigns under his intrepid leader. He 
first saw fire at Three Rivers, and 
fought at Brandywine, Paoli, German- 
town, Monmouth, Stony Point, Green 
Spring, Yorktown and in Georgia, and 
he traversed in the service every State in 
the Union, from the St. Lawrence to 
the Mobile. Though a brave officer, 
and in many battles and innumerable 
skirmishes, he passed through the war 
without a wound. He was for many 
years one of the Judges of our county 
Courts, and possessed a handsome land- 
ed estate in the Great Chester Valley. 
There are many that still recollect his 
erect, large and manly form, seated in 
his chair at the right of Judge Darling- 
ton, and always looking the full soldier, 
and wearing his high military air, even 
in his place of judgment. He died July 
10, 1827, just half of a century after 
John Morton ; having lived to see the 
death-bed prediction of his father-in- 
law completely verified. 

The father of Judge Davis was one 
of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace 
and of the Courts, a position similar 
to that held in the present day by our 
Justices of the Peace and associate 
Judges of tlie county Courts combined. 



HISTORY OF CIIESTEK. 



147 



' Squire Davis' used to relate that in 
his day couples would come as far as 
ten and twenty miles to him to be mar- 
ried, the mode of travel being on horse- 
back, the groom on his saddle with his 
bride on a pillion behind him. The 
pillion being so called from its form, 
being something like a pillow." 

Captain John Davis, married his first 
wife Ann Morton, in 1784, he being 
then 30 years of age. They had the 
following children, Isaac, John Mor- 
ton, Mary, {d. 1796, d. 1868, unmar- 
ried,) Charles Justis, Ann, Benjamin, 
and Albert, and three others who died 
young. Captain Davis' remains were 
interred in the grave yard of the Great 
Valley Presbyterian Church, in Chester 
County. His second wife was the 
widow of Major McLean, a brother 
officer of the Captain during the Revo- 
lution. 

1. Isaac Davis, M. D. A Biographi- 
cal notice of Surgeon Davis written for 
the Delaware County Medical Society, 
and printed in the Medical Reporter, 
states, he was the eldest son of Gen. 
John Davis, of Chester County, born 
July 27, 1787, that in 1806 he com- 
menced the study of medicine under 
Dr. Joseph Shalcross of Darby, took 
three courses of lectures in the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania, graduating in 
1810 ; entered upon the practice of his 
profession in Edgemont township, Del- 
aware County; was appointed by Presi- 
dent Madison, surgeon in the 6th U. 
S. Infantry, commanded by Col. Sim- 
onds, and died at Fort Jackson, Mis- 
sissippi, from a rupture of a blood ves- 
sel of the lungs, July 21, 1814. He 
never married and was much esteemed 
by his acquaintances and comrades. 

2. John Morton Davis, b. 1788, d. 
1848, at the family residence, Chester 
County, where he resided all his life. 



He married (first) in 181 8, Elizabeth 
Knight of Philadelphia; they had issue, 
Mary and Albert K. Mary ///, Joseph 
Baker of Philadelphia, and died leaving 
issue, Matilda, Mary, John Morton 
and Josephine Baker. Albert Knight 
Davis, b. 1821, in. Matilda, dau. of 
Charles Thompson of Philadelphia in 
1857, theyresideonpartoftheold fam- 
ily estate, and have issue, John, Charles 
T. and Matilda. John M. Davis, mar- 
ried (secondly) in 1830, Anna Maria 
Walley, and had issue, William W., 
Henrietta, John Morton, Elizabeth 
(;;/. Wm. Lee, of Chester County, and 
died without issue,) Isaac Henry, {J>. 
1836, 7ti. 1863, Sidney Bowman, of 
Philadelphia. He died in 1867, leav- 
ing Walley and Nellie Davis,) Anna 
Maria, b. 1840, in. 1862, Clinton 
Baugh, merchant of Philadelphia, and 
has issue Louis and Florence Baugh. 

4. Charles J. Davis, b. 1799, at the 
family homestead, commenced busi- 
ness at Reading as a grain merchant, 
afterwards a coal merchant in Phila- 
delphia, where he died Oct. 23, 1874, 
in the 75th year of his age. He mar- 
ried in 1824, Mary Siter, dau. of Adam 
and Sarah, of Delaware County. They 
had issue, Mary Emily, who died un- 
married. John Wesley, (chemist. Oil 
City, Pa., in. Emily Ritter of Chester 
County, and have Emily R., Mary S., 
Dora and Charles Graicey Davis,) Car- 
oline, Cornelia, both unmarried, Sarah 
Ann, Martha who died in infancy, and 
Robert Breckenridge, in. Sallie Porter 
of Philadelphia. He was engaged in 
coal-mining, and lost his life in 1873, 
in the mines, leaving a son and a daugh- 
ter surviving him. 

5. Ann Elizabeth Davis, b. 1804, in. 
1836, Dr. John A. Brown, of Chester 
Co., removed to Staunton, Virginia. 
Their only child, Ann Mary Morton, 



148 



HISTORY OF CIIESTEK. 



///. Alexander H. ImiII/, 1-',s(|., of that 
place, ill 1.S6S; ilu\ lia\i- one chilil, 
John Morton. 

6. lienjaniin l)a\is, son of John 
and Ann, /'. Jany. 9, 1806, at the old 
family homestead, married June 9, 
1831, at Norristown, Pa., Elizabeth N. 
{b. Nov. 10, 1809), dan. of Robert and 
Isabella Todd Hamill, and lives at St. 
Georges, Delaware, where he carries on 
the business of a coal and lumber 
merchant. They have the following 
children, all living. Rev. Robert 
Hamill Davis, now Pastor of the Pres- 
byterian church, Dearfield, New Jersey, 
b. 1832, ;//. Nov. 23, 1862, Adelia 
Thum, of Philadelphia, they have issue 
Elizabeth H., Adelia Thum, Elbe T., 
John Morton, and Susan T. Davis. 
Mary Elizabeth, b. 1834, m. Nov. 2, 
1865, Daniel B. Stewart, lumber mer- 
chant, of St. Georges, and had issue, 
Fredk. B., d. in infancy, Elizabeth 
Hamill, and Anna Margaret Stewart. 
John Alorton Davis, b. 1837, Druggist, 
Philadelphia, served in the Union 
Army during the Rebellion, and was 
wounded in battle. Charles L. Davis, 
b. 1839, served throughout the war 
of 1861-5, enlisting in the Common- 
wealth Artillery of Philadelphia in 
1861, subsequently as 2nd and then as 
ist Lt. and then Capt. in the 31st and 
82d Penna. Vols., promoted to Capt. 
in theSignal Corps of the Army of the 
Potomac, was chief of his corps in that 
army, and brevetted a Major and ap- 
pointed 2d Lt. loth U. S. Infantry, 
Feb. 23, 1866, married 1867, Sarah G. 
Moorehouse, dau. of Washington Bee- 
bee and Sarah A. (Fuller) his wife, of 
Cooperstown, N. Y., niece and adoi)ted 
daughter of Eliza C. and Judge Kben B. 
Moorehouse, of the same ])la<e ; they 
had three children who died in infan- 
cy, his wife and youngest child dying 



Jul)- 6, I S74. ////i,-// //. Davis, M. D. , 
b. [S42, served in the Signal Corps of 
the l^ S. Arni\- during the Rebellion, 
now Surgeon in the Indian Bureau, 
Colorado. Ja//ns Winnard Davis, b. 
1845, Attorney at Law and Master in 
Chancery, Somerville, N. J., served in 
the U. S. Volunteers during the civil 
war. Isabella Matilda Davis, young- 
est child of Benj'n & Elizabeth N., /;. 
1852, unmarried. 

Some information which I have been 
able to collect concerning the original 
tract of Ammasland, where the first of 
the family of Morton settled in Amer- 
ica, will be of interest. 

Ammasland Creek, or Mill Kill, was 
the present Cobb's Creek, and the pre- 
sent Darby Creek, from its junction 
with Cobb Creek, to the river Dela- 
ware. The name is of Swedish origin, 
and Ammasland was the country of 
the nurse, {Acrelius, 234,) one of 
those useful personages having lived 
there formerly, (where Archer's place 
now is. Upland Record,^ and being 
then as now, indispensable on certain 
occasions well-known to married peo- 
ple. She gave her name to the tract 
of land surveyed and laid out to Mar- 
ton Marteson and John Cornelus. 
This tract laid west of the Muckini- 
pattus, and east of a "small Stony 
creek," and was bounded on the west 
by the tract of John Henreckson, 
north by land of John Simcock, and 
south by Darby Creek. On the east 
of the Muckinipattus, was another 
tract surveyed and laid out to Hans 
Urin, Morten Morten and Moun 
Stoker, extending to Darby Creek on 
the east, into the woods north to John 
Simcock's land, and bounded south 
by Ammasland Creek. Tliis tract was 
called Calcoon Hook. See Holmes' 
Afap, 1684. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



149 



Armstrong, in his Notes to Upland 
Records, 197 & 198, states that "The 
position of Amasland, or Amesland 
(now Amosland — none of which are 
right; the proper word is Ammas- 
land), is ascertained from draft No. 
61, in the Surveyor-General's office at 
Harrisburg. This tract which was in- 
chided within the limits of Calkoen 
Hook, (the western limits of Calkoen 
Hook appears to have been Crum 
Creek,) was about a mile and three- 
quarters long, and one mile wide. Its 
northern boundary was formed by a 
bend in the Muckinipattus, made by 
that stream just before it reached 
Darby Creek, and was bounded by 
these creeks on the north and east, 
and contained about 1,000 acres." 
He said before at p. 64, in a note : — 
" The western boundary of Ammas- 
land was the creek called Mokornipa- 
tis (the present Muckinipattus)," and 
refers to map of grant to Andres Boon, 
called Boon's Forest, April 13, 1680, 
office of the Secretary of State at Al- 
bany, N. Y. The above is correct in 
some particulars, and erroneous in 
others. There were two tracts as I 
have stated above, surveyed or laid 
out to Morten Morten and others, on 
Holme's Map ; one east of the Muck- 
inipattus, called Calcoon Hook, which 
may have been a purchase from Israel 
Helme and others, and the other west 
of the Muckinipattus, called Ammas- 
land, and bounded on the Avest by a 
small stony run, which I take it, is 
the present Stone Creek. 

In Dr. Sftiith's History, 522-23, it 
will appear, as I have already stated, 
the tract on Ammasland, or Mill Kill, 
was laid out in 1675, to John Cornells 
and Marton Marteson, and this tract 
is called Ammasland, in the survey to 
Henrick Thadens, Sept. 2, 1675. See 



also the Map of the early settlements, 
in Dr. Smith's work. At the present 
time the farm opposite the "White 
Horse Tavern," lately kept by Jona- 
than P. Newlin, is called Amosland, 
and so laid down in the Atlas of Del- 
aware County recently published, and 
Amosland Creek bounds it on the 
west. Amosland road runs to the east 
of the present tract, down to the old 
flour mill on the Muckinipattus, known 
as "Inskeep'sMill," now called Glen- 
olden. 

In reference to this old mill, a good 
anecdote is related concerning one of 
its former occupants — Elisha Phipps. 
I give the story in the language it was 
related to me by Ed. S. Sayres, Jr., son 
of Ed. S. Sayres, Brazilian Consul 
at Philadelphia, who says he remembers 
the old vessel called ' ' Y' Dusty Miller, ' ' 
very distinctly : " Elisha, the Miller of 
y* mill on the Muckinipattus, was the 
owner of a small sloop called ' Y*-' Dusty 
Miller,' in which he took his flour to 
Philadelphia, and returned witli grain 
to the old mill wharf on the creek. 
Elisha having on one occasion taken 
on board of his little vessel a cargo of 
flour in barrels, and bidden his spouse 
'farewell,' made his way towards the 
river Delaware, and that was the last 
seen of Elisha and his craft for many 
a day. His stricken wife on inquir- 
ing, found that ' Y° Dusty Miller,' in- 
stead of proceeding up the Delaware, 
had gone the ' tother way, ' and she 
came to the conclusion that Elisha 
had gone to the great ocean, and pos- 
sibly was in the belly of some great 
whale, — a second Jonah ! However, 
one day she was agreeably (?) disap- 
pointed by seeing ' Y" Dusty Miller ' 
making her way, with the flood tide, 
to her old wharf on the Muckinipat- 
tus ; rushing down to the wharf to see 



150 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



her hclovc.l I'hipi.s, she slioutcd, Oh, 
Mr. Pliipps ! Mr. Phipps ! where have 
you been? 'Verily,' said Elisha, 'I 
have been to the islands called West 
Indies, and disposed of my cargo to 
much advantage.' And so he had ! 
We laughed very heartily at the story 
related to us by Mr. Ridgeway, said 
Mr. Sayres ; but reflected, that if we 
wanted to go to the West Indies, we 
would prefer a larger vessel than " Y' 
Dusty Miller." The (quaint name of 
his vessel, suggests that Elisha Phipps 
was a man of humor, and his voyage 
to the AVest Indies, that he was a man 
of energy and courage. He was, I 
presume, a son of Caleb Phipps, who 
married Susannah, the daughter of 
John Crosby, the elder, and Eleanor 
his wife. The above event must have 
occurred about 1816. 

The Indian name of Ammasland 
Creek, or Darby Creek, as it is now 
called, was Mohorhoottink. Acrelius, 
p. 64, says it was Nyecks. The name 
Calcoon Hook, which is in the region 
of country between the Muckinipattus 
and Darby Creeks, {Armstrong says, 
it extended to Crum Creek,) is taken 
from the Swedish words " IVilda Kal- 
kof/i,'^ i. e. wild turkeys, which once 
were plenty in those parts. 

Armstrong says, the Swedish mill on 
Ammasland Creek, was erected in 1643, 
and was the first water mill built with- 
in the territory now embraced within 
the limits of New Jersey, Pennsylva- 
nia and Delaware. Gov. Printz, in 
his report to the West India Company, 
on Feb. 20, 1647, says, * * "this 
place I have called Mondal, building 
there a water mill, working it the 
whole year to great advantage for the 
country, particularly as the wind mill 
formerly here, before I came, would 
never work and was good for nothing." 



"The site is well known," says Arm- 
strong, "andisui)on the road to Dar- 
by, the oldest highway in Pennsylva- 
nia, and the holes sunken in the rocks, 
in which the posts which supported the 
frame-work of the mill were placed, 
are still to be seen near the Blue Bell 
Tavern. ' ' There was a saw mill at this 
s])ot when I was a boy. 

From all I can gather, the Ammas- 
land tract, or a portion of it, remain- 
ed in the Morton family until tlie time 
of Major Sketchley Morton. My aunt, 
Ann C. Smith, now in her 78th year 
says, that John S. Morton, son of the 
Major, resided on the north side of 
the great road to Chester, in a log 
house, (this afterwards became the 
kitchen when he built an addition. 
He resided previously at his mother's, 
Mrs. Miller's, at the Taylor property ^ 
on Tinicum), the next house and pro- 
perty west of the late Squire Pearson's, 
(now or late belonging to William H. 
Price, who is a graduate of the U. S. 
Military Academy,) and that he remov- 
ed from there about 1820 to Springfield, 
and resided in the old mansion lately 
burned down (in 1868), near Morton 
station and Kedron church, until his 
death. His mother resided with him 
until her death, which occurred in 
Ridley, in 181 9, as did also an old 
aunt of his wife, called "Aunt Sally 
Way," by the family. Her maiden 
name was Peirce, she was a daughter 
of Robert and Elizabeth Peirce, of 
Delaware ; a Mr. Way was her second 
husband. She was an aunt of Mrs. 
John S. Morton. 

Judge (Sketchley) Morton lived for 
many years in the fine old country 
mansion, a short distance west of his 
father's residence, and there all his 
children were born. About 1866, he 
erected tiic handsome house he now 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



151 



occupies at Morton station, on the 
West Chester and Media railroad. 

From Holmes' Map of 1684, I ex- 
tract the names of the owners of land 
along Darby Creek and the Delaware, 
from Ammasland down to Marcus 
Hook Creek, viz. : John Henreckson, 
Henrick Jortin, John Hendrickson, 
Charles Ashcom ; (then Crum Creek,) 
Henrich W. Pritchett, Freest, (Priest 
or Ridley Creek). Sandurlan owned 
all the land between Ridley and Ches- 
ter Creek; below the latter, Robert 
Wade, John Bristow, Holbert Hend- 
rickson, Nat Evans, (then comes Mid- 
dle Run,) Morten, no first name given, 
it must have been Canute Mortenson. 
In the Historical Society of Penn- 
sylvania, there is an old deed, dated 
the 20th day of Feb., 1682, from Cor- 
nute Mortinson, of Middle Neck, in 
the county of Chester, &c.. Planter, 
and Mortin Cornutesson, of same place. 
Planter, conveying to James Browne, 
of Chichester, "acertaine^cellofland 
lyeing and being betweene Markus 
creek in the county aforesaid on the 
west and middle neck Runne on the 
north, togeather alsoe with all that 
dwelling house messuage or tenemt & 
buildings scituate or being upon said 
land." 

Next below Morten is John Johnson 
and John Hardin, then Marcus Hook, 
then the tract called by the same name, 
which extended to Naaman's Creek. 
The Rev. Dr. John B. Clemson, the 
descendant of an old Swedish family 
that settled at Naaman's Creek over 
two hundred years ago, resides upon 
the original tract that was settled upon 
by his ancestors, (the name of the 
original settler was Jacob Clemson,) 
although it once passed out of the pos- 
session of his family for a long time, 
and was owned by the Grays. The 



place is now called Claymont. AV'hy 
the fine old name of the Indian chief, 
Naaman, was not retained is a mys- 
tery to me, and why such a name as 
the present one was chosen, indicative 
of a poor, clayey soil, I cannot for a 
moment imagine, unless it is so appro- 
priate to the locality, resistance was 
impossible. 

But to return to the Mortons of Hook, 
who are supposed by their descendants 
to be related to the Mortons of Rid- 
ley. The tract laid down to Morten, 
was owned in 1698 by Morton Canute- 
son, i. e. Morton, son of Canute Mor- 
ton. In the list of tydables in 1677, 
there are names of Knoet (Canute) 
Morton, and Morton Knoetson, father 
and son. In 173-, Morton' Canuteson 
and Mary his wife, made a deed for a 
house and lot of ground to one of their 
sons, Erasmus. This Erasmus by will 
bequeathed his property to his kinsman, 
Martin Morton, who had two sons, 
Erasmus and Martin, and two daugh- 
ters, Mary and Elizabeth. The second 
Erasmus was the father of the first wife 
of my esteemed friend, John Larkin, 
Jr., the first Mayor of the present city 
of Chester. 

The children of Erasmus Morton 
(2d) were Aaron, who married Eliza 
Coborn ; Erasmus, who married Abi- 
gail Price ; Sarah, died unmarried ; 
Thomas, died single ; Hannah, who 
married David Hayes ; Mary, married 
firsfi Thomas Marshall, second, Thomas 
J. Valentine ; and Charlotte who be- 
came Mrs. Larkin ; all now deceased. 

Judge (Sketchley) Morton is the 
owner of a portion of the old family 
tract, and has a lumber-yard on it, at 
Morris' Ferry on Darby Creek. The 
ancient log house situated at this place, 
and which was, perhaps, the residence 
of Morton Mortonsen, the earlier set- 



152 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



tier at Aniniaslaml, is situated within 
the fork of two branches of the present 
Aniosland Creek. 

Judge Morton, and his son, Benja- 
min N., have also at Springfield, near 
Morton Station, where a considerable 
town is growing up rapidly, a lumber- 
yard and kiln for the manufacture of 
bricks, for which there is an increasing 
demand in the neighborhood. 

In regard to John Sketchley, the 
step-father of John Morton, the signer, 
he appears to have been an English 
yeoman of rather good education. I 
have in my possession a book, entitled 
" The Whole Duty of Man," London, 
1726, on a fly-leaf of which is written 
in a fair round hand, but the writing 
now faint from age, " John Sketchley, 
Yoaman, Everliegh, (indistinct, but I 
think that is the word intended,) July 
2, 1 718, I left England, and the 29 
instant arrived at Barbadoes, and there 
we stay 3 weeks, and then set sail for 
Mary-land, Sept. 6, arrived at y* Capes 
of Virginia, Sept. 19, we came to Pat- 
xion River in Mary-land, where I stay 
hire 5 years, and in y* 6th year, July 
25th, I set out for Piensilvinia, and in 
y" year 1724." Under this is written 
"Aaron Morton, 1782, Ridley town- 
ship, Chester county," and on the title 
page of the same book are the signa- 
tures of "Aaron Morton, 1791, 1799," 
and "Ann Morton." On the cover 
was the signature of the Signer, which 
I took off and pasted on a fly-leaf. 
This book was presented to me by my 
cousin, John S. Morton, March i, 1858, 
and is the only memento left of John 
Sketchley, the English yoaman, whose 
name is now so honored in the Morton 
family. 

The former residence of John Mor- 
ton, the Signer, mentioned as being 
ntnv within the bounds of Ridlev Park, 



is situated a short distance east of the 
railroad station of Ridley, on the north 
side of the railroad track, on the west- 
ern side of ^tpiTC Creek, and is in plain 
view of the travellers in cars of the 
Philadelphia, Wilmington and Balti- 
more Railroad Company; and the late 
residence of Aaron Taylor Morton, is 
on the south side of the railroad track 
near the Ridley depot. The Hender- 
son family who occupied the farm just 
to the east of Aaron T. Morton's, lately 
the property of Dr. Job H. Terrill, 
dec'd, of Chester, are not of Swedish 
descent. Mr. Henderson's Christian 
name was Matthew Henderson, he 
was of Scotch-Irish parentage. I be- 
lieve Robert Henderson, who lives near 
Inskeep's Mill, or Glenolden, is the 
only son of Matthew Henderson. He 
married a daughter of James McCor- 
mick who lived near Ridley school, 
on the old Garrett property, which 
he owned, and which is still owned 
by his daughter, Mrs. Henderson. I 
mention this, as the Morton tract, or 
Ammasland tract, was bounded on the 
west by John Henreckson's tract and 
a small stony run, which at first I 
thought was Amosland Run, at Morris' 
Ferry, but a more careful examination 
leads me to believe that Stone Creek 
in Ridley Park, is the small stony 
creek mentioned as the western boun- 
dary of Ammasland, and that Stone 
Creek took its name from being so 
mentioned in the survey of Ammas- 
land. 

In the early days of the Province, 
the public roads were laid out by the 
Grand Jury, one-third of their number 
being competent for that purpose. The 
following return from the records of 
the Court, will show the manner in 
which that duty was performed, and 
confirms my idea that the residence of 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



153 



Morton Mortonsen was at Morris' Fer- 
r\', in the old log house still standing 
there. "Upon the 9th day of the 
12th. month, 16S7, By virtue of an 
Order from the last County Court 
given us whose names are hereunto 
subscribed, being the Grand Jury for 
to lay out a highway that should serve 
for Marple, Newtown, Springfield and 
the inhabitants that way to the land- 
ing place at Amos-land, did upon the 
above day written, Begin at a road- 
way on the land of George Maris, which 
Road goeth from Chester through Mar- 
ple to Newtown, Soe from the Road 
through Bartholomew Coppick's land 
near his house, his house being on the 
left hand, Soe through Robert Tay- 
lor's land, straight on through more 
of George Maris, his land, soe bear- 
ing a little on the right hand through 
George Simcock's land, soon through 
Jacob Simcock's land, leaving his plan- 
tation oa the left hand, soe on straight 
forward to the land, adjoining to Amos- 
land, so into the King's Road, that 
comes from Darby, marking the trees 
as we came, so on to the landing place 
by the maine creek's side beyonnd 
[meaning to the east of] Morton Mor- 
tonsen, his house." Signed by William 
Garrett, Richard Parker, Edmond Cart- 
lidge, Thomas Bradshaw and Thomas 
Fox. 

An examination of the modern map 
in Dr. Smith's history of the county, 
in which the above mentioned road is 
laid down, and called the Lazaretto 
road, indicates the exact position of 
the Ammasland tract, as I have given 
it herein. The above road mentioned 
as laid out in the return could not have 
been Amosland road, because that does 
not lead down to the main creek, that 
is to Darby Creek, while the Lazaretto 
road does ; and besides, the Taylor pro- 



perty, a part of which was owned by 
John S. Morton's mother, who was a 
daughter of Jcih n Taylor , and where 
Mr. Morton lived before he removed 
to Springfield, lies west of the road 
leading from Springfield to Morris' 
Ferry and Tinicum, which is now 
called the Lazaretto Road. 

While historians and antiquarians 
are trying to preserve the ancient and 
Indian names of places, our go-ahead, 
money-making men are inventing/^?/;^^ 
titles for all places of interest or beauty, 
and thus the ' ' OM White Horse Hill, ' ' 
has become "Prospect Hill," within 
the boundaries of Norwood, and it is 
true as John Cochran in his advertise- 
ment of the sale of lots at Norwood, 
which is near the junction of the old 
Queen's Road, the P. W. & B. Rail- 
road, and the " Muckinnipper" Creek, 
states : ' ' The Chester and Philadelphia 
Pike (road) passes through these places, 
'meaning Ridley Park and Norwood,' 
and from the lots fronting on this pike 
are the most magnificent views of the 
Delaware River, although two miles 
from it." All this is a fact. The lo- 
cation is high, healthy and the views, 
especially in early spring and in the 
autumn, and during the Indian sum- 
mer, are perfectly lovely. The whole 
line of hills along the Delaware, from 
Sharon to Naaman's Creek afford ex- 
quisite views and charming, healthy 
sites for country residences. 

Daniel Culin, of Ammasland, (so 
spelled in the olden records,) owned a 
large tract of land on the right bank 
of Darby Creek, in the neighborhood 
of the present Morris Ferry bridge. 
His name had its mutations as well as 
others of Swedish origin. The first of the 
name who came to this country, wrote it 
Von Kolin, or Von Koilen. It changed 
afterwards to Van Colin, Van Culin, 



154 



HISTOKY OF CHESTER. 



C'uliii, and even Qlin. One of his 
(laughters married Conrade Nieder- 
mardt, called Nethermarke in the next 
generation, who is traditionally said 
to have been a great speculator in 
lands, and most litigious neighbor. 
His son, Luke Nethermarke, was killed 
on the Chester Road, near where the 
present White Horse Tavern stands, 
about the year 1765. Returning home- 
ward at night, he was overtaken by a 
storm and, galloping his horse to escape 
it, rode into a tree which, unknown to 
him, had been blown down across his 
track. Conrad Nethermark appears 
to have been married twice, as he was 
son-in-law to Mathias Natseller (or 
Natceliusj of Darby, who died in 1 723, 
having married his daughter Christian. 

Rebecca Niedermark, daughter of 
Conrade, married, _/fr.f/, Thomas Tay- 
lor, of Tinicum, and had by him one 
son, Israel Taylor; and second, Wil- 
liam Smith, also of Tinicum. They 
had issue several children, but only one 
son, the late Hon. Thomas Smith, of 
Tinicum, late member of the U. S. 
Congress from Delaware County, who 
died in 1846. Rebecca Niedermark, 
was one of the last who was able to 
speak the Swedish language. 

The large old stone mansion house 
of the Taylor^s, was built before the 
Revolution. Whilst it was building, 
the family lived in the still older log 
house now occupied by Edward Ward 
on the same premises. This house is 
constructed of white cedar logs, cut 
no doubt in the marshes hard by, 
though not a tree of that species is now 
known to grow in Pennsylvania. It 
was thoroughly repaired some year? 
ago by Aubrey H. Smith, Esquire, and 
bids fair to stand for another century 
or more. 

A part of the Tavlor estate now 



belongs to Aubrey H. Smith, who took 
it and 240 acres of land, at the parti- 
tion of his father's lands in Tinicum 
township. It has long been known as 
PrintzHall — so called in remembrance 
of the Swedish Governor, Johanes 
Printz, to whom the wliole island of 
Mattinneconk (Tinicum) was granted 
by the Swedish Crown, in 1643. 

The fort, church, and government 
house, built by the Swedes, stood, 
however, on the bluff below the Laza- 
retto, where many remains of them 
have been found. The site of the 
government house is said by tradition 
to be that now occupied by the farm 
house belonging to H. W. Miller, 
of Philadelphia. Many curious tradi- 
tions are current about these places, 
but they have, perhaps, too little in- 
terest for record. 

Thomas Smith, who occupied the 
present Printz Hall before the division 
ofhis father's estate, married Elizabeth, 
daughter of the late Judge, George 
Gray Leiper. 

Aubrey H. Smith, Esq., who inher- 
ited the present Printz Hall, is the late 
United States District Attorney for the 
Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He 
married a daughter of the late Mr. Jus- 
tice Grier, of the U. S. Supreme Court. 
He takes great interest in all matters 
relating to the history of his native 
county. Mr. Smith has been for many 
years one of the Vice-Presidents of the 
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and 
to him we are indebted for the preser- 
vation and publication of the Upland 
Record, so freely used in my present 
work. This old record was discover- 
ed by Albanus Logan, in an old book- 
case belonging to his ancestors, some of 
whom formerly resided in the " Logan 
House," at Chester. Mr. Smith pre- 
sented to the Historical Society, the 



HJSTOirV (»F CliKSTKli. 



original deed of grant of the Swedish 
Queen, Christina, to Captain Besk, of 
the land between Chester and Hook 
creeks, which is in an excellent state of 
preservation. 

XV. 

In the History of Delaware County, 
it is said : — " The earliest record that 
has come under the notice of the au- 
thor, in which a burying place at Ches- 
ter is mentioned, (other than that of 
the Quakers), is in the Will of John 
Johnson (Jan Jansen), ' of Markis 
creek,' dated March i6, A. D., 1684-5. 
He desires to be buried in Chester, alias 
Upland. ' ' See Register's office, Phil- 
adelphia, Book A. 35. "The testator 
was a Dutchman, and doubtless an 
Episcopalian, and hence it may be in- 
ferred, that his burial place mentioned, 
was one belonging to an organized con- 
gregation of Episcopalians at Chester. 
But the fact that the testator designates 
the burying place by the name of the 
town, and not by that of the Church, 
is very strong, though not conclusive, 
evidence, that no Church edifice had 
been erected at the time of making this 
Will ; and that the establishment of an 
Episcopal burying place at Chester, by 
that society, preceded the erection of 
the Church edifice of any kind many 
years. ' ' It will be remembered that the 
old graveyard of St. Paul's, on which 
the old Church formerly stood, was a 
burying place belonging to the Swedes. 

It has been argued that Dr. Smith is 
right, that the name Jan Jansen is 
Dutch, and that the Jansens who set- 
tled in Germantown, were from Hol- 
land or the Palatinate ; and I was re- 
ferred to the name Janssen or Janson, in 
Lowber" s Dictionary of Fajiiily names, 
London, i860, p. 71. But in the Pre- 



liminary dissertation in that work, p. 
xxii, my position that Sen and Son, 
were undoubted Swedish terminations, 
was sustained; it is said there: "2. 
The termination Son is a characteristic 
feature of all Scandinavian countries, 
while in Germany, on the other hand, it 
is comparatively a rare occurrence. ' ' In 
the preceding clause marked i , it is said, 
" Ing or Inger, signifies son, offspring, 
being cognate with the English young. 
It was discontinued about the time of the 
conquest, and consequently all names 
in which it appears, are carried back 
to the Anglo-Saxon times. ' ' i\pplying 
this rule to Jansen, the Jansens of Hol- 
land were the descendants of Swedes, as 
well as Johnson and Jansen of ' ' Markes 
creek." Jon Jonsson's name is en- 
rolled in Acrelius'' List of Heads of 
Swedish Families residing in New Swe- 
den in the year 1693, which means that 
the list was made in that year ; yet it 
is evidently a list of all the heads of 
Swedish families who had to that time 
settled on the banks of the Delaware. 
The Will proves that the Swedes had a 
burying place at Chester in 1684-5, of 
which fact the Rev. Mr. Ross seems to 
have been aware, and that it was the old 
graveyard of St. Paul's. The Will of 
John Johnson, was registered on the 
17th of the 2d month, 1686, indexed 
No. 25, 1684, p. 35, Book A, &c. I 
examined the original Will, which is 
dated 16 March, 1684-5, ^"d begins: 
"In the name of God, Amen, I John 
Johnson of Markes creek * * * 
My body I commit to the earth to be 
decently buried at Vpland," &c. The 
witnesses names are " Morton Knuson, 
Ackn'd his mark O before Henry Rey- 
nolds, Sydrask Witworth. ' ' He leaves 
to his wife Elenor, one third of his es- 
tate, and the remainder to his children. 
He was no doubt the ancestor of the 



150 



HISTORY OF CHESTEK. 



Johnsons of Chichester. 'l"hc original 
Will is simply signed lANSH. There 
is nothing in the Will, or other original 
l)ai)ers filed in the matter, to show that 
John Johnson of Markescreek, wasever 
called Jan Jansen. My friend Chris- 
tian G. Peterson, a native of Denmark, 
and a Scandinavian scholar of some re- 
pute, says: "The Swedish name for 
John is Johan, and John Johnson is 
anglice for Johan Johanson. The 
termination Sen, is Danish and Nor- 
wegian, Son is Swedish. The name of 
Jan Jansen, I should say was Dutch, 
that is from Holland." Vincent in 
his History of the State of Delaware, 
I vol. i66, states that "John John- 
son (Jan Jansen in Dutch)," was " the 
Dutch Agent at Delaware in 1640. He 
was to hold good correspondence with 
them," &c. which he did. He can 
hardly be our John Johnson, who could 
not write his own name, and made 
hieroglyphics instead, making two at- 
tempts at that, the first being near 
where the witnesses signed. The Dutch 
Agent above is spoken of by Vincent 
in another place, p. 155, as Jan Jansen 
the Clerk, who "was ordered to pro- 
test in proper form," and at p. 171, he 
is called the " Commissary or Gover- 
nor on South River, Jan Jansen Van 
Ilpendam, (called by the English, John 
Johnson./' In the records of Upland 
Court, however, Jan Jansen is the first 
named on the list of inhabitants of 
Marr: Kill in 1677, and the witness 
Morton Knuson, is down as Morten 
Knoetson ; but these are their names 
given and spelled by another, and not by 
themselves. My conclusion is, there- 
fore, that John Johnson was a Swede, 
and that he never called himself Jan 
Jansen. 

Janssen.— In the A^ew England 
Historical and Genealogical Register, 



Vol. XXVIII, No. CIX, Jany. 1874. 
note to p. 45,. it is stated referring to 
a paper on said page, that " Carl Jans- 
sen is called 'Secretary.' * * In 
1635, J'*'"' Janssen of Ilpendam in New 
Holland, was Commissary at Fort Nas- 
sau. It is possible that Carl was his 
relative." 

It may be said in this connection, 
that the position of Fort Nassau on the 
Delaware, is not known. It was, how- 
ever, -on the Jersey shore above Tini- 
cuni. See Armstrong'' s Address before 
the N. Jersey Historical Society, Jany. 
20, 1853, printed in their proceedings 
VI. 187-207. 

One of the descendants of this old 
Swede family, Benjamin F. Johnson, 
whom I remember quite well, died at 
his residence in Lower Chichester, on 
Nov. 9, 1 87 1, in the 80th year of his 
age. Squire Johnson was born in the 
family homestead where he died, and 
where he had lived near all the long 
years of his life. At the age of 17 
years, Mr. Johnson became a mem- 
ber of St. Martin's Church at Marcus 
Hook ; for 60 years he was a vestryman , 
and for 25 years the Secretary of the 
vestry. In 1845, '"'S '^^'^ ^"^^ of the 
building committee for the erection of 
the present Church edifice, which is 
built of brick. He was also one of the 
Incorporators under the Charter, and 
a frequent Lay-Deputy representing 
the Church in the Diocesan Conven- 
tion. For fifty years "Squire John- 
son" held the office of Justice of the 
Peace, receiving his first appointment 
from Governor Hiester. In that posi- 
tion he did much public good, using his 
influence with suitors to prevent useless 
litigation, and settling disputes among 
his neighbors ; and as in his earliest 
days there were not many clergymen 
in his vicinity, he performed numer- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



157 



ous marriage ceremonies amongst his 
friends and acquaintances in the sur- 
rounding country. He died quietly at 
his tea table, sitting alongside of his 
wife, his practice for nearly fifty-four 
years, and surrounded by three daugh- 
ters and one son ; his other two children, 
sons, being absent. He was conversing 
pleasantly, when he complained of a 
sudden pain in his breast, and in a 
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, 
he was not ! for his God had -called 
him home. 

The plantation owned by Benjamin 
F. Johnson at the time of his death, 
was first settled by his ancestor, John 
Johnson, in 1673, ^^'^^ ^^^^ in his fami- 
ly 32 years, when it was sold by his 
widow and children to Robert Lang- 
ham. Three years after, Langham sold 
it to Collet, who held it 6 years, and 
then sold it to Pedrick, whose family 
held it 36 years, and then they sold the 
land to Rowan, who after holding it 
II years, conveyed it to David John- 
son, a descendant of the original 
settler, in whose possession and that of 
his descendants it has remained until 
the present time (1873), ^ period of 
114 years. The property having been 
held by the Johnson family, altogether, 
146 years out of 200 years since their 
ancestor first settled on it. 

In 1766 David Johnson erected a 
substantial brick dwelling house upon 
his farm, for his residence ; it is still 
in good condition, and is now occupied 
by his great grand-children and their 
mother. 

Benjamin F. Johnson was born Oct. 
25, 1792, died Nov. 9, 1871. He m. 
Mary Ann Entriken ; they had issue, 
Sarah, Richard Morgan, Anna Char- 
lotte, Benjamin Douglas, Mary Eliza- 
beth, Frances Matilda, Henrietta 
Haines, and David Marshall Johnson ; 



the latter ;;/. Margaret Woodland 
Brown, and is a member of the Bar of 
Delaware county, residing at Chester, 
and was District Attorney for the coun- 
ty from 1872 to '76. 

Benjamin F. Johnson had the fol- 
lowing brothers and sisters : Charlotte, 
/?. Mar. 29, 1788, d. Aug. 25, 1805; 
David <5. June 9, 1790, d. Aug. 2, 1811 ; 
Sarah, d. Oct. 17, 1795, ^'^- J^cob M. 
Douglass, and ^. Aug. 1831, and Joseph 
Harker, fi. Aug. i, 1798, d. July 6, 
1849. Squire Johnson's father's name 
was David, /k June 9, 1759, d. July 
II, 1800. His mother was Sarah Har- 
ker, ^. Oct. 24, 1759, d. April 4, 1864, 
in the 95th year of her good old age. 
His grandfather's name was also David, 
^. 1720, died in the year 1770, aged 50 
years, and his grandmother Johnson's 
maiden name was Hannah Ford. 

There was an Humphrey Johnson in 
membership with Friends who married, 
in 1693, Ann, widow of Lawrence 
Routh (Ruth) from Yorkshire, and 
purchased land in Upper Chichester 
the next year. He appears to have 
spoken in meetings sometimes, but his 
communications not being appreciated 
by the members, he left the Society in 
1 701 . In 1 7 1 1 he sold the Chichester 
property and afterward resided in Ches- 
ter township near the line of Aston. 
In his will, dated Sep. 22, 1748, and 
proven June 10, 1749, he mentions his 
sons Francis, David and Humphrey, 
and daughters Elizabeth Lamplugh, 
Ann Johnson and Rachel Johnson. It 
is believed by some of the descen- 
dants that President Johnson was of 
this family. 

In the History of the County, page 
211, it is said, "The ground at Ches- 
j ter, known in ancient times as ' The 
I Green,' was church land, but it belong- 
ed to the Swedes. It was unicli nearer 



158 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



the river tliaii St. Paul's rliurch. The 
Swedes never had a church at Chester, 
and the fact that in parting with their 
church lands at that place, they made 
no reservation of a burying place, is 
most satisfactory evidence that no part 
of these lands had been appropriated 
to the interment of the dead." Very 
true ; for the old Swede burying-ground 
was not included in "The Green," 
which was sold to David Lloyd ; cir- 
cumstances show that he was too cun- 
ning a man to buy up the burying- 
ground ; he had trouble enough to hold 
on to the Green. 

And as confirming what I have said 
hereinbefore. Dr. Smith goes on to say, 
'' From all the facts and circumstances 
that have come to the knowledge of 
the author, he has arrived at the con- 
clusion that the Episcopalians had no 
church edifice at Chester prior to the 
erection of the old St. (Paul's) James 
brick church recently demolished, and 
that it was erected between the years 
1702 and 1704." 

In 1699 the yellow fever made its a])- 
pearance on the shores of the Delaw^are. 
At Philadelphia it created great dis- 
tress. It is supposed to have visited 
Chester also at that time, because the 
SeiHember Court which assembled there 
in that year, adjourned without trans- 
acting any business. In 1 793, the fever 
again broke out along the shores of the 
Delaware, and for several summers ex- 
tending from that time until 1802, its 
ravages were excessive. At Chester its 
visitations are yet spoken of with dread 
by the descendants of old families. The 
family of Shaw was nearly extermi- 
nated by the fever. Samuel and Mary 
Shaw lost four children by it. In what 
year this occurred their family record 
gives no account, but it must have been 
previous to his death. wlii( h occurred 



in Sept. 1783. In 1798 my grand- 
father. Dr. William Martin, fella victim 
to it, through his professional expo- 
sure in attending the crew of a British 
vessel off Chester, who were all down 
with the fever. 

At a council held at Philadelphia, 
May 16, 1 71 2, "A Peticon of a great 
number of the Inhabitants of the coun- 
ty of Chester, praying that y* Borrough 
of the Town of Chester, in the Pro- 
vince,- may be made a free porf, was 
read and considered : And it is the 
opinion of the Board that the matter 
may be presented to the Prop'ry, that 
he may take proper methods concern- 
ing the same & consult the Comrs. of 
the Queen's customs therein. ' ' 2 Col. 
Records, 570. I have again to regret 
that the names of the petitioners to 
the petition are not given. Chester 
never was, however, made a free 
port. 

It appears that the Public Pound at 
Chester was located on the west side 
of the creek, until the year 1722, when 
by order of the Court it was removed, 
as the record states, " Upon applica- 
tion of some of the inhabitants of 
Chester for a Pound in said Chester ; 
whereupon the Court orders, that there 
be a Pound erected in the Market 
Place in the Borrough of Chester, 40 
foot square, well fenced with posts and 
railings, and a good rack in the mid- 
dle of s** pound, and that Richd Mars- 
den be keeper of the pound, To act, 
do and perform according as the Act 
makes mention," <S:c. 

The earliest list of taxables of the 
county of Chester known, is the one 
made in 1722, and on file in the Coun- 
ty Commissioners' Office at West Ches- 
ter. I insert here the list for the town- 
ship of Chester, omitting the amount 
of tax on the real estate of eacli. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



159 



David Lloyd, 
John Baldwin, 
David Wilson, 
John Salkeld, 
John Wade, 
Jeremiah Carter, 
John Wright, 
Jonas Sandelands, 
Richard Weaver, 
Jacob Howell, 
David Roberts, 
Mary Baldwin, 
Humphrey Johnson, 
John Scarlet, 
Thomas Coubourn, 
Edward Carter, 
Thomas Phillips, 
John Weldon, 
Jacob Roman, 
John Morrison, 
William Coubourn, 
James Hinde, 
Sarah Head, 
Isaac Norris, 
Samuel Gray, 
Michael Atkinson, 
James Barber, 
Ebenezer Jenkin, 
Joshua Cowpland, 
George Bush, 
Edward Danger, 
William Taylor, 
James Townsen, 
Richard Fowler, 



William Weldon, 
John Rimington, 
Joseph Reynear, 
Joseph Townsend, 
Thomas Morgan, 
John Baldwin, Jr., 
Thomas Howard, 
John Minshal, 
Jonathan Ogden, 
Caleb Harrison, 
Wm. ffishborn, 
Tobias Henrickson, 
James Logan, — 
John Yeats, 
John Postlethwaite, 
Samuel Bulkley, 
James Cregor, 
George Simpson, 
Henry Munday, 
Evan Morgan, 
Richard Marsden, 
Robert Barber, 
Joshua Low, 
Richard Evans, 
Thomas Giffin, 
Ruth Hoskins, 
John Rice, 
Thomas Coubourn, 

Joseph Parker, 
John Morgan, 
Erasmus Can nut, 
Henry Baker, 
Thos. Coubourn. 



The number of taxable inhabitants 
in Chester County in 1 732, was 2,157 ; 
in 1742, was 3,007 ; in 1752, was 3,958 ; 
in 1760, was 4,761 ; and in 1771, was 
5,484. The taxables of Chester town- 
ship in 1775, numbered 168. 

In 1730 the County Court ordered, 
with the consent of the Commission- 
ers and Assessors of the county, " that 
Nathan Worley be made Master and 
Keeper of the House of Correction or 
Workhouse in the borough of Chester, 
for the term of one year, if he behave 
himself well, which s* time is to com- 
mence on the 25th day of March next, 
and that the Burgesses of said Borrough 
shall from time to time, give such di- 
rection therein as they may adjudge 
proper. ' ' 

The practice that existed previous to 
this time of causing criminals to wear 
l)adges indicative of the crimes for 



which they were convicted, such as 
T for theft, and punishment in the 
stocks, was almost altogether discon- 
tinued, although the stocks were still 
kept up in Chester and elsewhere. 

Thomas Penn, son of William Penn, 
arrived in Chester from England on 
the nth of Aug., 1732, on his first 
visit to the Province. Notice was sent 
to Philadelphia to the Assembly and 
Council in Session there of his arrival, 
by express. And the congratulations 
and compliments of the Governor and 
Board to the new Joint Proprietary, 
were sent to him by the Secretary of 
the Council, and "to acquaint him 
that to-morrow morning they would 
in person pay their respects to him," 
which they did, accompanied by a 
large number of Philadelphians. Af- 
ter dinner, Mr. Penn set out for Phil- 
adelphia with his visitors, where he 
was received with all honors. 

On the night of Sept. 19, 1734, John 
Penn arrived at Chester, where he was 
met by his younger brother, Thomas 
Penn, and a party of gentlemen from 
Philadelphia. On the 21st they all 
left Chester for that city. 

The Norristown Herald, recently 
published a ^'■Literary Curiosity,'''' 
which, it says, was intended to refute 
the charge, that their Sheriff selected 
Juries to effect certain private ends. 
It is as follows : 

" Advertisement, June i, 1724 — Whereas 
it has been reported by a certain Person of the 
County of Chester, indicted for Felony at the 
last Court of Quarter Sessions, held for that 
County, or by his Friends or Agents, that J. 
T., (John Taylor,) Sheriff of said County, se- 
lected a Grand Inquest of partial or malicious 
men, on Purpose to find that Bill against him. 
It is hereby Advertised, that the said Sheriff 
thinks himself obliged (tho' not to prove Ne- 
gatives) to declare his Abhorrance of such a 
Fact, with his generous disdain of so false and 
lilack a cliarge. 



1(31) 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



" The Industry and malice wherewith this 
report has been cultivated, cannot with the 
Judicious stand for a Proof of the Veracity of 
its Porters ; the Honorable the Magistrates of 
the said County were pleased to signify their 
Approbation of the Clrand Jury, and that they 
were honest and good men, well qualyfy'd 
for that service, who are by this infamous 
Rumour as basely stigmatized as the Sheriff 
aforesaid. 

" But it is presumed that liie character and 
reputation of these Gentlemen is a sufticient 
Amulet against the Contagion of Craft, Hy- 
pocrisy and Lies. Their names are — 

John Bezer, John Newlin, 

Wm. Clayton, Jr., Robert Chamberhiin, 

Peter Worrall, John Riley, 

John Hurford, John Yearsley, 

John Hopton, Thomas West, 

Peter Hatton, Thomas Coeburn, 

Thomas Woodward, Richard Evanson, 

John V'arnall, Edward Woodward, 
John Bennet." 

Mr. Joseph C. Taylor, of Wilming- 
ton, Delaware, has in his possession 
an original deed for a tract of land in 
Pennsylvania, signed by Wm. Penn. 
It is written in old English text, on 
parchment, dated March 3, 1681, 
and despite its great age, is in a re- 
markably good state of preservation. 
The deed first defines the limit of 
the land granted to William Penn by 
Charles II., and then conveys in 
due form 1250 acres of this tract to 
William and Peter Taylor, in con- 
sideration of ;^25, or about $125. 
These 1250 acres are situated in Del- 
aware (then Chester) County, and 
include a portion of the ground on 
which the town of Media now stands. 
On the margin of the deed is Wil- 
liam Penn's signature in his well- 
known bold handwriting. 

Mr. Taylor has also in his posses- 
sion another parchment deed which 
conveys to Peter Taylor, a portion of 
the above tract. This was recorded 
at Philadelphia, in Patent Book, vol. 
iii.. p. .82, March 5, 1705. On its 



margin are the signatures of Edward 
Shippen, Griffith Owen and James 
Logan, CoiTimissioners of Wm. Penn, 
who at that time was absent in Eng- 
land. 

From the Media American, 1876, 
I extract the following information: 

"A few facts in reference to the original 
owners of the land now chiefly occupied by 
the Borough of Media, may prove to be of 
general interest. It appears from authen- 
tic records, such as ancient memoranda, wills 
and deeds, yet carefully preserved in various 
depositories of antique manuscripts, that Peter 
Taylor and William, his brother, of the parish 
of Sutton, county of Chester, England, bought 
of William Penn, March 3, 1 68 1, land to the 
amount of 1250 acres, in the Province of 
Pennsylvania, for which they paid the sum of 
twenty-five pounds for all, and one shilling 
quit rent for each one hundred acres ; or, in 
other terms, about 3 1 28 for the whole amount 
— ten and a quarter cents per acre. Seven 
hundred acres of this tract were taken up by 
the two brothers, on the exact location of Me- 
dia. Peter took four hundred acres and Wil- 
liam three hundred, leaving a remainder of 
six hundred and twenty-five acres to be divided 
between them in East Cain township, where 
they decided to locate the other tract. In 
addition to this, they took up 'Liberty Land,' 
in Philadelphia, in their own right, and a lot 
of thirty-three feet on High, or Market Street, 
sixty-six feet on Third Street — this was the 
'bonus' gi-ant. 

"They came over from England early in 
1682, some time before the arrival of I'enn, 
and probably in the ship 'Amity.' Both at 
once proceeded to locate their claims. The 
ground taken up by Peter formed nearly a 
i:)arallelogram, and extended from Ridley 
Creek to the 'Providence Road; its southern 
boundary line extended east and west, along 
or near Washijigton Street, in the Borough of 
Media. Inasmuch as only a draft of the land, 
without its measurement on each side, is before 
us, and not the old deed, we can neither give 
the width of the tract, nor the location of its 
northern boundary line; but, as il was paral- 
lel to the opposite one, we presume that it ran 
not far north of the prison. 

" William Tavlor look his share of the seven 



HISTORY OF CHESTEK. 



161 



hundred acres, nearly in the form of a square, 
along the Providence Road north of and ad- 
joining the possessions of Peter. Directly 
west of him was the land of John Houlston, 
extending to the creek. It is a singular fact 
that William had been settled on his own 
estate considerably less than a year, when 
death summoned him away. He died Mar. 6, 
1683, and his wife Margaret three days before, 
leaving a son named Joseph and two daugh- 
ters. It is an incidental circumstance worthy 
of notice that Peter being unmarried when he 
arrived in this country, was married to Sarah, 
a daughter of the John Houlston above named, 
Jan. 2, 1685. The Houlston property was 
north of the western end of the land claimed 
by Peter. It is a remarkable fact, that Houl- 
ston had two other daughters married the same 
day, namely : Elizabeth to James Swaffer, 
and Rebecca to William Gregoi7; while a 
fourth one, Martha, was married to David 
Ogden before the close of the same year. The 
children of Peter Taylor were Peter, W^illiam 
and Samuel. 

" It is on record that Peter moved to East 
Cain not later than June, 17 17, and died in 
1720, probably at the residence of his son, 
William, in that township. It also appears 
that on Aug. 20, 17 17, Peter Taylor and wife 
Sarah, deeded to Peter Dicks one hundred and 
seventy acres of ground, being all that portion 
of the estate nearest Ridley Creek — Taylor 
retaining one hundred and fifty-one acres, and 
its western boundary line must have run due 
north and south, a little west of the residence 
of A. Lewis Smith, Esq., on State Street. 
The fact that Peter had but one hundred and 
fifty-one acres left, is presumptive evidence 
that, in the thirty-five years that he had then 
resided on the farm, he must have disposed of 
about eighty acres of the original tract, doubt- 
less on its northern border. This would seem 
to indicate that he was not as prosperous in 
life as some of the other early settlers of the 
county. When he removed to Cain, his son, 
Peter, appears to have taken charge of the 
remainder of the estate. He married Eliza- 
beth Jarman, of Radnor, died in 1740, and 
was succeeded by /lis son, Peter, — the grandson 
of the original Peter. Meantime, a portion of 
the adjoining property which had come into 
the ownership of William, another son of the 
original Peter, who sold a section of it consist- 
ing of nearly 150 acres to John Buller, in the 



year 1735, and retained for himself 151 acres- 
He was 40 years old at the time of his death. 

" The 151 acres of Peter Taylor, the third, 
having been sold to Peter Dicks, was deeded 
to him June 8, 1748; hence, after an interval 
of sixty -six years, the land of the original Peter 
Taylor, immigrant, passed out of the hands of 
his descendants. Dicks built a log cabin on 
the lower edge of his property, which is stand- 
ing to-day, though 1 27 years old. He had thus 
absorbed the whole estate beside owning the 
large tract of land along the west of the Pro- 
vidence Road, south of and contiguous to the 
eastern end of the Taylor property. He was 
a son of Peter Dicks, of Cheshire, England, 
who settled in Birmingham, in 1686, and had 
seven children. This son moved to Nether 
Providence in 1717, though the family had 
either located a claim there in 1686, or sub- 
sequently purchased the ground from the Ver- 
nons. He was in easy circumstances and af- 
terwards made large additions to his real estate. 
On the south of Taylor's land, he owned about 
half way from Providence Road to Ridley 
Creek, while a person by the name of Brough- 
ton owned from his boundary line to Ridley 
Creek. As the property of Thomas Minshall 
faced that of Peter Taylor, to the eastward, we 
have the six original owners of land, on or 
near the present site of Media, as follows : — 
Peter Taylor, William Taylor, John Houlston, 

Thomas Minshall, Peter Dicks, and 

Broughton. 

" It is a well ascertained fact, that Ceneral 
Zachary Taylor, a President of the United 
States, and the hero of the Mexican War, was 
a lineal descendant of Peter Taylor, immi- 
grant. His ancestors of the second or third 
generation removed from Cain, Chester Coun- 
ty, to Winchester, Va., where the boyhood of 
Gen. Taylor was spent, though he removed to 
the West, in after years. And this is how it 
was that Media, in a somewhat remote sense, 
it is true, gave an occupant to the Presidential 
chair of the nation." 

It is an error to say that Sarah Tay- 
lor and the other daughters of John 
Houlston were married Jan. 2, 1685, 
as they only "passed meeting" the 
first time on the 2nd of ist mo. (March) 
and were not married for some weeks 
after. Zachary Taylor is claimed by 



IG2 



IIISTOKV OF (JIIKSTKU. 



other families of Taylor, and those 
having the/acfs should give them. 

William and Peter Taylor, were 
among the first settlers of the region 
wlicre the above land is situated, 
and their progeny are widely spread 
over Delaware, Chester, and Berks 
Counties, and elsewhere. William 
Taylor, brother of Peter, died 1683. 

Joseph C. Taylor and his brother. 
Maris, are lineal descendants of Peter 
Taylor, who died in 1720. 

Mr. Taylor has compiled a genea- 
logical history of the Taylor family, 
from the time of their settlement in 
Pennsylvania to the present day, a 
copy of which he presented lately to 
the Historical Society of Pa. William 
and Peter Taylor came from Sutton, 
in Cheshire, in England, and settled 
on adjoining tracts of land at Sandy 
Bank, Upper Providence, Chester (now 
Delaware) County, Pa., in 1682. Pe- 
ter Taylor was marrietl by Friends' 
ceremony, i mo. 2, 1685, to Sarah 
Houlston, daughter of his neighbor 
John Houlston. 

On the 2d of July, 1690, Peter Tay- 
lor and Randal Malin, on behalf of 
themselves and several other Friends, 
purchased of Thomas Powell a parcel 
of land situated in Upper Providence, 
for a burying-place, which is now 
known as Sandy Bank grave-yard. 

The children of Peter and Sarali 
Taylor were, Peter, John, Sarah, Wil- 
liam and Samuel. 

Nathan Taylor who resided at Sandy 
Bank, before and during the Revolu- 
tion, is supposed to be a grandson of 
Peter Taylor, as the earliest date his 
name appears among the receipts and 
papers of the family is in 1757. It 
appears from the appraisement of the 
goods and chattels of Nathan 'J aylor, 
dated Feb. 22, 1800, that he died at 



the family homestead in Lii)per Pro- 
vidence. 

The children of Nathan Taylor were, 
Enoch, who married Elizabeth Maris; 
Ruth, who married Aaron Baker ; 
Hannah, who married William Wilkin- 
son, and Evan, concerning whom no- 
thing is known. 

Enoch Taylor, the grandsire of the 
present generation, lived during the Re- 
volution. He married Elizabeth Scott, 
a widow, whose maiden name was 
Maris, she was a descendant of George 
Maris, who emigrated from the parish 
of Inkborough, in the county of Wor- 
cester, in England, in the year 1683. 
Elizabeth survived her husband, Enoch 
Taylor, and married a third time, Wil- 
liam Twaddel, whom she also outlived, 
and became for the third time a widow ; 
ultimately she died in the vicinity of 
the Lamb Tavern, formerly known as 
the Three Tuns. 

Enoch Taylor died in the year 1802, 
leaving the following issue — Ezra, who 
w. Sarah P., the dau. of Thomas Curtis, 
of New Jersey; Nathan, who ;;/. Susan 
Massey, of Springfield, Delaware Coun- 
ty, Pa. ; Eliza, who m. Joseph Cloud, 
who held a position in the U. S. Mint, 
at Philadelphia; Mary, wlio ///. ist, 
Levi Bailey, 2d, William Wallers, of 
the State of Delaware ; Hannah, who 
;//. Samuel Laycock ; Jeremiah, who 

;;/. Anderson ; Julianna, who w. 

Joseph King, of Germantown ; and 
Maris, who w. in the" first instance 
Rhoda Elkinton, and secondly Sarah 
Norris, and removed to Clarksburg, 
Harrison County, Va., where he died 
June 14, 1854. 

Ezra Taylor, the eldest son of Enoch 
and Elizabeth, took the ancestral pro- 
perty at Sandy Bank, at its appraised 
value. He was Constable of Ui:)per 
Providence in 181 1, and during the 



HISTORY OF CHESTEl!. 



U)8 



war of 1812 followed butchering. He 
was b. June 26, 1781, ;;/. Sarah P. 
Curtis, June 3, iSog, and d. May 5, 
1825, leaving his widow and seven 
children surviving him, viz., Eliza ; 

Thomas C, who m. Elizabeth ; 

Julianna, who m. William G. Vernon ; 
Maris, who m. Ellen Swinney ; Rachel, 
who ;;/. John Miller ; Elizabeth, de- 
ceased unmarried; Isaac M., who ///. 
Mary Ann Mills, and Joseph C, who 
intermarried with Mary E. Francis, 
and resides at Wilmington, Delaware, 
and who furnished me with the forego- 
ing information ; enclosed with which 
was the following acrostic, written by 
himself: 

ACROSTIC. 

Thoughts oil Sandy Bank Graveyard. 
" Sleepers sleeping under the sod, 
And their spirits ascended to God, 
Now captives in their gloomy cells, 
Death hath conquered their various spells. 
Yes, life's sweet dreams now are past, 
But in the grave we shall lie at last. 
And never waken from that slumber. 
Not until the Archangel our chains disencumber 
Keep us then from trifling toys, 
Great giver of heavenly joys, 
Remembering that as we carelessly tread. 
Ah ! soon we may be placed among the dead. 
Vigils for us may be sadly keeping. 
Even then with the sleepers sleeping 
Y'onder under the ground our bodies lay, 
And numbered with those who have past away. 
Regardless of winter's winds, or summer's 

thunder, 
Death soon may make us one of that number." 

XVI. 

In 1736, the Society of Friends hav- 
ing commenced the erection of a new 
meeting-house at Chester, the first 
meeting-house, well known as the 
house in which it is alleged that the 
first General Assembly of the Province 
of Pennsylvania held its sessions, was 
sold. The new meeting-house is still 



standing on Market Street, between 
Second and Third Streets, and is own- 
ed and used at this time by the Hicks- 
ite branch of the Society of Friends. 

It is reported in Smith's History of. 
New Jersey, pp. 427, 436, that in the 
years 1727 and 1732, slight shocks of 
earthquake were felt in this part of the 
country. That on Dec. 7, 1738, a 
severe shock was also felt, " accompa- 
nied by a remarkable rumbling noise; 
people waked in their beds, (it must 
therefore have occurred during the 
night,) the doors flew open, bricks fell 
from the chimneys, the consternation 
was serious, but happily no great dam- 
age ensued." And again, on the 
morning of Nov. 18, 1755, a severe 
shock of an earthquake was felt all 
over this part of America. It was felt 
along the Atlantic coast for 800 miles. 
The vicinity of Boston got the worst 
of the shock. Again, there occurred 
on Sunday, Oct. 13, 1763, a severe 
shock of an earthquake, accompanied 
by a loud, roaring noise, which greatly 
alarmed not only the inhabitants of 
Philadelphia, but of the surrounding 
country. Most religious congregations 
were assembled for worship at the time, 
and much confusion, though but little 
injury, happened from their efforts to 
escape from the buildings, which they 
feared would fall on them. 

A slight shock of an earthquake was 
felt at Chester, Wilmington, and Sa- 
lem, N. J., and other places along the 
Delaware, Oct. 8, 1871, at 8.40 a.:m., 
a rumbling sound, as of the reverbera- 
tion after the discharge of a heavy 
piece of ordnance, occurred during 
the shock, which lasted about thirty 
seconds, shaking houses, windows, 
crockery, &c., and causing nervous 
people to rush out of doors. 

In 1739, the women had "the ridi- 



164 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



cnluus fashion of wearing h()0])s," so 
says an old chronicler. The Society 
of Friends testified against this prac- 
tice. Thisarticle of feminine api)arel, 
was at lliat time (ailed '' lioopsf [^ctti- 
loats. ' ' The wearing of hooi)s became 
the fashion again about 1855. At first 
they were called "hooped skirts," and 
were made enormously large, now they 
are called "skeleton skirts." They are 
made of a reasonable size, and help to 
support the heavy skirts of women's 
clothing, and my lady friends assure 
me that they are exceedingly comfort- 
able, and they would not be without 
them ; they have been in use now 
(1874) about 20 years. Previous to 
hoops, women of fashion wore crino- 
line, which was a stiff kind of petti- 
coat, having something of the same , 
effect as hoops. About 1840, the Bus- 
tle was all the fashion, now the Pannier 
has taken its place, and is a skeleton 
made of wires. In my Journal, under 
date Aug. 24, 1840, I find it entered: 
" I attended the Park Theatre, with 
Stanton, Rains, Hammond, and about 
30 other cadets, to see the ' Divine 
Fanny' Ellsler dance. Charlotte Cush- 
man and her sister, Susan, played in 
an after-piece. Ladies wore bustles in 
those days, but Charlotte's beat them 
all." Hear what a lady writes : 

THE BUSTLE. 

" Haste, Venus I daughter of tlie purple wave, 

Unveil on earth thy radiant charms no more ; 
Hie maid of beauty, to thy coral cave, 

Thy peerless reign, alas, too soon is o'er. 
No longer now, ye artless graces rise, 

Your forms in sweet perfection to display, 
Love, grace and beauty with the goddess dies. 

Since now /<? »iot/e i)roclaims the bustle's sway 
■***-;:■** * 

Bustle superb! In thee alone we find, 
Love, grace and beauty in one heap combin'd ; 
In thee alone new beauties rise and live, 
Which only art and eti(|uellc can give. 



Among the grave, the gay, the sad or merry, 
Each maiden paces a la Dromedary. 
Hail ! wond'rous age, when nature's perfect law 
Resigns the contest to a bag of straw. 
When fashion bold embracing every wliim. 
Augments the form where nature fain would 

trim, 
And tastes as fickle as the fleeting wind, 
Must needs attach an extra hump behind. 
While youth and lieauty bending 'neath the 

load. 
Become sad martyrs to the laws of mode, 
The Age, the Custom, Etiquette and taste ; 
The biggest bustle, and the smallest ivaist.^'' 

I may add here, that ladies of fash- 
ion, especially those young and hand- 
some, wear hats not bonnets, and very 
becoming they are. Our women dress 
very expensively, with long trailing silk 
skirts, with an over-dress ; they wear 
large quantities of false hair, and in 
winter, expensive hats and sacques of 
fur are the fashion. 

During the years 1747-48, the de- 
predations of the French and Spanish 
privateers in the Delaware, became 
very alarming to the inhabitants, and 
the authorities, fearing that the Pro- 
vince might be invaded and the city of 
Philadelphia plundered, entered into 
associations and prepared batteries at 
the favorable places on the river, for 
defence. 5 Col. R., 185-6. During 
this period, the Associators of Chester 
Co. formed two regiments of '■'■Home 
Guards for the emergency.^' I copy a 
list of the officers to whom commissions 
were granted by the Provincial Coun- 
cil, Jan. 9, 1747. 

William Moore, Colonel. 
Samuel Flower, Lieut. Col. 
John Mathers, Major. 

Ca/>iains. 
David Parry, And. McDowel, 

Roger Hunt, John McCoull, 

George Aston, George Taylor, 

Wm. McKnight, James Graham, 

Moses Dickie, Robert Grace, 

Richard Richison, Hugh Killpatrick, 

John Williamson, James Hunter, 

John Mathers. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



165 



Lieutenants . 
Isaac Davy, John Culbertson, 

Guyon Moore, John Vaughn, 

Robert Morrell, Wm. Darlington, 

Robert Anderson, John Kent, 

John Boyd, Wm. Buchanan, 

John Cuthbert, John McMakin, 

Jno. Cunningham, James Mathers, 

Charles Moore. 

Ensigns. 
Nathaniel Davies, James Scoot, 

William Littler, Robert Aull, 

Edward Pearce, Francis Garmer, 

Samuel Love, Jacob Free, 

Jas. Montgomery, Wm. Gumming, 

John Hambrith, John Johnson, 

Geo. McCuUough, Joseph Talbert, 

Benjamin Weatherby. 

And on March 29, 1748, (5 Col. 
Records, 210,) the following list of offi- 
cers, commissioned for Chester Coun- 
ty, is given. The regiment was called 
the " AssociATORS," and furnished 
their own equipments. 

Andrew McDowel, Colonel. 
John Frew, Lieut. Col. 
John Miller, Major. 



Job Ruston, 
William Bell, 
Joseph Wilson, 
Henry Glassford, 

Joseph Smith, 
Robert McMullin, 
James Cochran, 
Robert Allison, 



James Dysart, 
Rowland I'arry, 
Joseph Parke, 
John Emmit, 



Captains. 

William Boyd, 
William Reed, 
William Porter, 
John Miller. 

Lieutenants. 

John Culbertson, 
Thomas Hope, 
Robert Macky, 
George Bently. 

Ensigns, 

John Donald, 
Thomas Clarke, 
John Smith, 
Thomas Brown. 



At the Council held May 25, 1748, 
I find the following entry, (5 C. R., 
246): "The following officers being 
chosen & returned by the Associators 
to the Presdt & Council, were approv- 
ed of & Commissions issued to them 
accordingly : William Clinton, Cap- 
tain; Morris Thomas, Lieut., and Wil- 
liam Carr, Ensig/i.'" 

And on Aug. 4, 1748, the follow- 
ing persons were commissioned from 
Chester County : Thomas Hubert, Jr., 
and George Leggitt, Captains ; John 



Rees and Thomas Leggitt, Licuts., 
and Anthony Richard and Archibald 
Young, Ensigns. 

During the fall of 1748, Peter 
Kalm, the Swedish naturalist, arrived 
in Philadelphia, and after spending 
a short time in that city, he passed 
through Delaware County, on a visit 
to Wilmington. On his return, he 
says he passed some time at Chichester 
(Marcus Hook), "A borrough on the 
Delaware, where travellers pass the 
river in a Ferry." He adds: "They 
build here every year a number of small 
ships for sale ; and from an iron works 
which lies higher up the country, they 
carry iron bars to this place, and ship 
them. The environs of Chichester, 
contain many gardens which are full 
of apple trees, sinking under the weight 
of innumerable apples. ' ' About noon 
our traveller says, he reached "Ches- 
ter, a little market town which lies on 
the Delaware. The houses stand dis- 
persed. Most of them are built of 
stone, and two or three stories high ; 
some are, however, made of wood. In 
the town is a church and a market- 
place. ' ' Smith's History, 258. 

The following is a list of licenses 
granted in Delaware County, in 1755 : 
Chester, James Mather, Aubrey Bevan, 

John Hanley, David Cowpland. 
Darby, John Rudolph, George Wood. 
Chichester, Thomas Clayton, Mary 

Pain, James Pillion. 
Middletown, Joseph Talbot. 
Concord, Jno. Hannum, Nath'l Newlin. 
Chester Township, James Strowd. 
Ridley, Mord. Thomson. 
Radnor, Sampson Davis. 
Newtown, John West, Richard Barry. 

In 1757, the Court recommended 
to the Governor the following named 
persons to be licensed as tavern keep- 
ers in Chester Borough, viz., Aubrey 



166 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



Bevan, James Mather, David Cowp- 
land and John Hanley ; for the town- 
ship, William Miller. 

In 1762, among the list of new Jus- 
tices of the county of Chester, appears 
the name of Henry Hale Graham, Esq. , 
who during his lifetime occupied so 
many prominent positions of profit and 
trust in the county. 

The Grahams of Delaware County, 
claim an importance in Scotland as 
early as A. D. 404, when Graham, 
Regent of Scotland, commanding its 
army, breached the mighty wall erect- 
ed by the Roman Emperor Severus, 
between the Forth and Clyde. They in- 
termarried with the Stuarts of the royal 
family, and were conspicuous in the 
wars for Scottish liberty by the side of 
Wallace and the Bruce. The great 
Marquis of Montrose and Graham of 
Claverhouse, Viscount of Dundee, call- 
ed by the Covenanters for his deeds, 
' ' Bloody Dundee, ' ' and * ' Bonny Dun- 
dee" by the Cavaliers, on account of 
his great personal beauty, were of this 
family. 

William Graham (father of Henry 
Hale Graham), born in London, April 
25, 1692, was the second son of Rich- 
ard Graham, of Blackhouse, Cumber- 
land, and Alice his wife, daughter of 
William Hale, of Hointon, Worcester. 
Richard was the second son of George, 
the son of William Graham, of Black- 
house. Richard Graham and Alice 
his wife, with most of their children, 
lie buried in the Quaker burying ground 
near Bunhillsfield, London. 

William Graham, m. Feb. i, 1719, 
Anne, dau. of Thomas and Patience 
Bradford, in Friends' meeting-house, 
called " Buil-and-Mouth,^' in St. Mar- 
tin's le Grand, near Aldersgate, Lon- 
don, and had issue three sons and four 
daughters, all of whom died young, 



(except a daughter, Hannah,) and 
were buried in Bunhillsfields burying 
ground. His wife Annie, d. Dec. 29, 
1727; and in 1729, he married in 
Friends' meeting-house at Waltham 
Abbey, in "Middlesex," Eleanor, 
dau. of Zedekiah & Dorothy Wyatt, 
of Grace Church St., London, where 
she was born, 5 mo. 8, 1705. He 
had by his second marriage two sons 
and three daughters. 

William Graham, emigrated to the 
Province of Pennsylvania, in the year 
1733. See Records of Chester Monthly 
Meeting. In 1743, a daughter, Anna 
Maria, born in Philadelphia, died and 
was buried in Friends' grave-yard at 
Chester, where her tombstone still 
stands. William Graham d. Aug. 6, 
1 758, and was buried in the same place. 
His sons' names were, Henry Hale, 
and Zedekiah ; the latter was born in 
Darby, Oct. 21, 1737, and died un- 
married. 

In the Minutes of Chester Monthly 
Meeting, under date of 28th of 8th mo. , 
1 758, it is said, that " Dorothy Graham 
Requests to come under the care and 
Notice of Friends, which this meeting 
agrees to, as her conversation and con- 
duct shall agree with the Rules of our 
Discipline." 

6 mo. 25, 1759. A certificate was 
produced " for Eleanor, the widow of 
William Graham, from London, dated 
in the year 1733, setting forth her 
good Life and Conversation, & that 
.she was in unity with Friends there, 
but as the said Certificate has laid so 
long, this meeting thinks proper to 
appoint Peter Dicks and John Sharp- 
less to join with the women [Jane 
Hoskins and Sarah Sharpies,] to en- 
quire into the Reason why it was not 
delivered in sooner." They report 
next n")nth that they "have taken an 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



167 



opportunity with her and heard her 
Reasons why her certificate was not 
delivered in sooner, which Reasons 
being allowed of, and that they do not 
find but that her Conversation has been 
orderly, therefore the said certificate 
is received. One of her children is 
come under the care of Friends by 
Request. The rest, for sufficient Rea- 
sons are not looked upon as Members 
until they apply in like manner." 
This none of the others appear to have 
done. The wife oif Henry Hale Gra- 
ham retained her membership with 
Friends, and two of their daughters, 
Eleanor and Mary, became members 
prior to marriage. 

The family history says : " One of 
the daughters, Dorothea, married a Dr. 
Smith, and died without issue, a victim 
to the yellow fever, at Chester, in 
the latter part of the last century." 
From Friends' records it appears that 
Dorothy Graham, daughter of Wil- 
liam and Eleanor, " passed meeting" 
with John Smith, of Lower Chiches- 
ter, 7 mo. 30, 1 781, but the marriage 
was interrupted by her mother, who 
became dissatisfied with him " for not 
being so willing as she desired, to re- 
ceive some goods which she proposed 
to give to her daughter on such terms 
as she thought fit to propose." Har- 
mony was restored however, eventu- 
ally, and the marriage took place 12 
mo. 3, 17S3. Her mother was still 
living. 

Henry Hale Graham, was born in 
London, in 1731, and came as a child 
to this country with his father. He 
was a man of much influence in the 
Province, a lawyer by profession, and 
held the offices of Register, Recorder, 
Prothonotary and Clerk of the several 
Courts of Chester County. He was 
an industrious man, and with his own 



hands wrote the greater part of the 
papers on file in his office, which his 
peculiar chirography attests. In 1761, 
he was appointed one of the Justices 
of the county ; in 1775 and again in 
1789, to the same position. The offi- 
cial report on the condition of Penna., 
made in 1775, by Gov. Richard Penn, 
shows that the offices of Prothonotary, 
Register, Recorder, &:c., were held by 
Mr. Graham at that time, and the com- 
pensation thereof was placed at ^120 
per annum. 

In March 26, 1777, Thomas Taylor 
was appointed Mr. Graham's successor 
in office, although he never assumed 
the duties of the position, nor did 
Benjamin Jacobs, who was appointed 
April 4, same year, for on the nth 
of June, Caleb Davis was qualified. 
On the 28th of July, the records of the 
county were still in Mr. G.'s posses- 
sion, when the Council authorized Mr. 
Davis to "enter the dwelling and out- 
houses of H. H. Graham, take posses- 
sion of the books and papers of the 
county, and remove them to a place 
of safety." In 1777, when the English 
army held possession of Chester, Mr. 
G. seems to have lost by their depre- 
dations, ;^25. He took no active 
part in the Revolution. In 1789, 
when Delaware County was created, 
he was appointed with others one of 
the trustees for the purchase of the 
Court House and Prison, at Ches- 
ter, "for the use of the inhabitants." 
On Nov. 7, 1789, he was appointed 
President Judge of the Court of Com- 
mon Pleas, but on account of not hav- 
ing been a Justice of the Peace at the 
time his appointment was illegal ; where- 
upon the President of Pennsylvania 
and Council revoked the commission 
they had granted, and commissioned 
him a Justice of the Peace, and then 



168 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



appointed him President Judge of the 
several Courts of the new county. In 
1790, he was a delegate from the coun- 
ty to the Constitutional Convention of 
the State, and during its sitting he died. 
The Convention, out of respect to Mr. 
G. , adjourned, and sent three of their 
members to Chester to attend his fu- 
neral. His remains are interred in 
Friends' grave-yard. A large portion 
of the clothing Henry Hale Graham 
wore when an infant, and in which, it 
is said, he was taken to meeting to be 
enrolled on the Records of the Socie- 
ty,* are now in the possession of Henry 
Graham Ashmead, his g. grandson. 

Mr. Graham married Abigail Pen- 
nell, by whom he had the following 
children: Eleanor, b. 7 mo. 17, 1761, 
wifeof Raper Hoskins; Mary, /;. i mo. 
4, 1764, wife of Joseph Hoskins; Wil- 
liam Graham, b. 2 mo. 13, 1766 ; Hen- 
rietta, b. 4 mo. 27, 1768, wife of Rich- 
ard Flower ; Dorothea, b. 6 mo. 22, 
1 770, wife of Dr. Pennell ; Catha- 
rine Greenleif, b. i mo. 2, 1773, wife 
of Capt. Thomas Robinson ; Henry 
Hale, b. 5 mo. 24, 1777, d. 7 mo. 21, 
1777; Abigail Graham, spinster, b. 4 
mo. 19, 1780, and Anna Maria, b. \\ 
mo. 29, 1782, d. 9 mo. 22, 1783. 

William Graham, only son of Henry 
Hale Graham, was born in Chester in 
1766; admitted to the bar Nov. 14, 
1788, and married Jane Robinson, 
sister of Capt. Thomas Robinson, who 
had married one of Mr. Graham's 
sisters. During the whiskey insurrec- 
tion in 1794, he commanded a body 
of troops from Delaware County, who 
had responded to the call of Gov. 
Mifflin. Mr. Graham, owing to a dis- 
ease in his throat, could never argue 
matters before the Court ; but enjoyed 
a large attorney practice. This dis- 

•"■ 'riii> i> not a ( hiakcr cunIoih. 



ease Avas thus occasioned ; when a young 
man he went to Chester Island, in 
company with some gentlemen, rail- 
shooting, and became separated from 
his companions. When night came on 
he could not be found, and they re- 
turned to Chester, determining at day- 
break to resume their search for him. 
All that night he remained on the bar, 
the tide rising so high that his head 
and chin alone were out of the water. 
When rescued next morning, his voice 
was entirely gone, and he fiever re- 
covered it. He ever after spoke no 
louder than a whisper. He died with- 
out children in 1821, and was interred 
in Friends' grave-yard. His remains 
have since been removed to Woodland 
Cemetery, Philadelphia. 

The above births of Henry Hale 
Graham's children, were recorded on 
the minutes of Friends' Meeting at 
Chester, at the particular request of 
the mother; the father not being in 
membership with Friends. Although 
the writer of much of the foregoing 
sketch says Judge Graham was a Friend, 
it is a mistake. The Records of Ches- 
ter Monthly Meeting are my authority. 
They state distinctly that he was not 
a member. 

Judge Graham was born in London, 
July I, 1731 ; he died Jan. 24, 1790. 
He married as stated, Abigail Pennell, 
daughter of Thomas and Mary, July 
I, 1 760. She was born June 29, 1 740, 
and died Nov. 4, 1797, (copied from 
the family Bible, in possession of Mrs. 
Eleanor Pearsoll, a g. grand-daughter 
of the Judge). I have in my posses- 
sion an old, black letter law book, en- 
titled '■'■ Tryals per Pais,'" })ublished 
in London, 1702. On the inside of 
the front cover is pasted a book-plate, 
on which is engraven, "Henry Hale 
Graham," and the arms are, Ar, on 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



169 



a Chief, or, three escallop shells, ppr. 
Crest, two wings conjoined or. Motto, 
^^ Nee Habeo, Nee Careo, Nee Curo,'" 
i. e., I have neither property, want nor 
care. This was the motto of the "En- 
glish Bowstring Makers Company." 
In the book are the signatures of 
"Henry H. Graham, Wm. Graham, 
and Wm. Martin, Chester, Pa., 1819, 
William Graham's office. ' ' My father 
and grandfather, both named William 
Martin ; both studied law with William 
Graham. 

Graham is not a place-name, but 
from the old Norse Graine, signifying 
worth. The family had its origin in 
Cumberland or Scotland. New Eng- 
land Historical Mag., 23 vol., 80. 

From an old scrap-book of my grand- 
father. Dr. William Martin, I copy the 
following: — "For the Pennsylvania 
Packet, Jan. 26, 1790. On Saturday, 
the 23d inst., departed this life at Phil- 
adelphia, after a short illness, Henry 
Hale Graham, Esq., in the 59th year 
of his age. President of the Courts of 
Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions 
for Delaware County, and one of the 
Delegates in Convention for altering 
and amending the Constitution of the 
State. And on Tuesday morning, his 
remains were interred in Friends' bu- 
rial ground at Chester, attended by 
his family and a very large collection 
of relatives and acquaintances, and a 
committee of the Convention. 

"The regret that the Publick mind 
must feel for the loss of a valuable cit- 
izen, can only be excelled by the deep 
sorrow of an amiable family, and large 
connection of relatives and friends. 
With the tears that shall flow for his 
loss, will often be mingled those of the 
poor and friendless, to whom in his 
professional and private character, he 
was a liberal benefactor. 



"While speechless o'er thy closing grave we 

bend, 
Accept these tears, thou dear departed friend ; 
Oh, gone forever, take this last adieu ; 
And sleep in peace, ." 

Eleanor, daughter of Henry Hale 
Graham, and wife of Raper Hoskins, 
died July 3, 1835. Mary, another 
daughter, wife of Joseph Hoskins, de- 
parted this life Dec. 2, 1836. Henri- 
etta Graham, wife of Richard Flower, 
died Oct. 6, 1841. Catharine G. Gra- 
ham, who married Thomas Robinson, 
departed Jan. 24, 1836. Abigail War- 
der, daughter of Raper and Eleanor 
Hoskins, died June 15, 1832. Their 
son, John G. Hoskins, died June 20, 
1845 J ^i^d their daughter Henrietta, 
died Nov. 2, 1852. Zedekiah W. 
Flower, son of Richard and Henri- 
etta, died Feb. 14, 1846; and Jane, 
the widow of William Graham, Esq., 
died Dec. 10, 1855. William G. Flow- 
er, son of Richard and Henrietta, died 
Aug. 21, 1865. 

The following article, entitled "Re- 
miniscences of William Graham, Esq.," 
is copied from the West Chester Re- 
publican, of the year 1854. I do not 
know who wrote the article. 

" The remains of Mr. Graham were inter- 
red in Friends' burying ground in Chester, 
beside those of his kindred and many of the 
friends of his early youth. The house he 
formerly occupied has been re-constructed, 
and the law office in which he was consulted 
by his clients, has been remodelled and con- 
verted into a dwelling. Occasionally we find 
one of his ancient books travelling the rounds 
of the reading community, and we have now 
in our possession a work printed in black let- 
ter, in 1695, entitled 'Tryals per Pais, or the 
Law of England, concerning Juries by Nisi 
Prius,' which belonged to him. A few of his 
relatives yet reside among us. 

"Among the attorneys of the old Judicial 
District, of which Chester County was a part, 
there is no one around whom, in my memory, 
so many interesting associations cluster as 



17U 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



William Graham. My first acquaintance with 
him was in the year 1815, when a commission 
from the Hon. Jared Ingersoll, then Attorney 
General of Pennsylvania, made me Prosecut- 
ing Attorney at old Chester. 

" In his office at that time, Barnard, iJick 
and Kerlin were students. He was a son of 
Henry Hale Graham, whose name was iden- 
tified for many years with the legal history of 
real estate in Chester County before its divi- 
sion. To the professional man and to the 
annalist, Henry Hale Graham is a very inter- 
esting character. His residence looked out 
upon the landing place of Penn, and was close 
by the spot where stood the building in which 
the first law of the Province was enacted, and 
near where Joseph Parker once kept the county 
offices and records of the Court. The style of 
his house and office reminded one of the olden 
time, but his library still more so. His name, 
written in his plain, peculiar hand on their 
leaves, is still to be seen in many an ancient 
folio, and scattered far and wide in the hands 
of a fourth generation. Many of them contain- 
ed the name of Joseph Parker, a previous 
learner from the same pages. 

"William Graham had studied law with 
Edward Tilghman, and held his name in the 
highest reverence, an interest which he ex- 
tended to the descendants of his legal precep- 
. tor. His regard was well justified, as may be 
seen in the laudatory but plain and just eulo- 
gium upon Mr. Tilghman, written by Horace 
Binney, to be found in the American Encyclo- 
pedia, and which has been i^anked by common 
consent as a rare gem of legal biography. Mr. 
Graham's doings and surroundings were of a 
character with the son of such a father, the 
pupil of such a preceptor, and the heir of an 
estate in such a locality. 

" He commanded a troop of cavalry in 
the Western Expedition, when the exposure 
Ijrought on an attack which affected his voice, 
so that afterwards he could not speak much 
above his breath. He continued his profes- 
sional aid, however, to his friends, neighbors, 
and old clients while he lived, and whenever 
he attempted to speak in Court, all ears were 
open. His uniform good sense, great propri- 
ety and dignity of character and accurate 
knowledge of the law and practice, command- 
ed attention from bench, bar, the jury and the 
public. He died some thirty odd years ago, 
when ( )ld Chester lost the rcniaininir distin- 



guished name of the olden time. At the sale 
of his library, Major Barnard and myself were 
in attendance, and purchased a large number 
of his books. Among these ancient volumes 
were many curiosities, historical and literary, 
as well as legal. I bought a very old Bible, 
and presented it to Judge Darhngton, whose 
tastes as a bibliographer were marked, also a 
copy of Symboliography, which has found its 
way, through a seccjud hand, intcj the Phila- 
delphia Law Library, and a law Ijook of Pre- 
sident Reed, his manual when a student at the 
Inns of Court, London, together with many 
curious, old and time-worn publications of Wil- 
liam Penn's day. A well kept volume of 
' Crampton on Courts,' published in 1594, yet 
in my possession, reminds me that the motto 
of Henry Hale CJraham, was 'Nee Habeo, 
Nee Careo, Nee Curo.' The book is printed 
in Norman French, with the black letter type, 
and is now 260 years old. 

"The Court, in 1815, when William Gra- 
ham was at the head of the bar, was composed 
of Wilson, as President Judge, Lloyd, Wil- 
cox and Crosby, Associates ; Joseph Engle, 
Prothonotary ; Joseph W^eaver, Clerk, and 
Daniel Thompson, (a former Sheriff) as Crier. 

"The manner in which the public records 
had been kept by Thomas B. Dick, when he 
held the public offices, was proverbial for ac- 
curacy and neatness, and his dockets a pattern 
of beauty and propriety. Could William Gra- 
ham have lived, the seat of Justice would 
never have been removed from ancient Up- 
land, and I shall never cease to regret that a 
respect for its interesting memories did not 
keep it there." 

William Graham lived and had his 
law office in the fine old mansion house, 
at the S. E. corner of Graham Street 
and Edgmont Avenue, directly oppo- 
site the former site of the first meeting- 
house of Friends, lately the residence 
of ''Squire" Smith. Capt. Thomas 
Robinson, erected and lived in the 
hotise next to it, to the south, with a 
garden between. 

Mr. Ed. S. Sayres, says: " \Vm. 
Graham, was a very lively, jolly man, 
full of fun, wit and anecdote ; a most 
agreeable companion. I often visited 



HISTOllV OF ClIESTEH. 



171 



him. He married Tom Robinson's 
sister. I did not know that Robinson 
had been in the war of 1812, with De- 
catur ; but he was at Tripoli, I know, 
with him and Preble." 

In the life of Commodore Preble, in 
the Poi-t Folio, 1810, vol 4, 546, it is 
related : " The bomb-vessel, command- 
ed by Lieut. Robinson, had all her 
shrouds shot away, and was so shat- 
tered in the hull, as to be kept above 
water with difficulty." 

In Friends' burying ground at Ches- 
ter, there is a stone erected to the 
memory of "William Graham, who 
departed this life 6th August, 1758, 
aged 69 years." Another has on it 
" Henry H. Graham, son of William 
Graham," and marks the spot where 
lie the remains of Judge Graham. 

XVII. ■ 

In the Pennsylvania Gazette of Nov. 
17, 1768, is an obituary notice, which 
reads thus : "On Saturday last, de- 
parted this life John Mather, Esq., 
an ancient inhabitant of Chester, in 
the 73d year of his age. During that 
long period, in every station of life 
which he filled, his Reputation for 
Piety, Honesty and Benevolence, was 
universal." 

"Stranger to civil and religious Rage, 
The good man walk'd innoxious thro' his Age, 
Unlearn' d, he knew no Schoolman's subtle Art, 
No language but the Language of the Heart, 
By nature honest, by Experience Wise, 
Healthy by temperance, and by Exercise." 

And in the Packet iox Dec. 7, 1772, 
it is stated that, " On the 28th ult., Mr. 
James Mather, Jr. , of Chester, coming 
to this city, was flung from his horse, 
and so violently hurt, that he died in 
three hours after being carried back to 
Chester." 



,Among the arrivals at Philadelphia 
by the Rebecca, of Liverpool, 31st of 
8 mo. (Oct.) 1685, was Richard Ma- 
ther, but whether he was the ancestor 
of the Chester Mathers, is unknown. 
John and James Mather were among 
the Chester taxables in 1724, after 
which the names frequently appear in 
the old records. John married Mary 
Hoskins as already noted, (p. 56) and 
was commissioned a Justice of the 
Peace, April 4, 1741, in which station 
he continued by reappointment near 
twenty years. John. Mather, Jr., per- 
haps a son of James, was an attorney- 
at-law, at Chester, where he died in 
September, 1 763. In his will he men- 
tions his sister, Rebecca Vanleer, and 
only son, James; appoints his friends 
Plunket Fleeson, of Philadelphia, and 
William Atlee, of Lancaster, his ex- 
ecutors. John Mather, Sr., mentions, 
in 1768, the children of his brother 
Thomas, namely, John, James, Jane, 
Mary, Elizabeth and Sarah. To his 
grand-son, John Mather Jackson, he 
devised a stone house and lot opposite 
the parsonage, and then in the tenure 
of Francis Richardson. The home- 
stead appears to have been a brick 
house on a lot at the S. E. cor. of 
James and Front Streets. 

Dr. Smith says, p. 275, that "As 
early as 1734, some small quantities 
of silk had been made in Pennsylvania, 
probably from the native mulberry. 
About this period (1770) the subject 
was revived, and great efforts made to 
introduce the culture on a large scale. 
Premiums were offered to the persons 
who should bring the greatest weight 
of Cocoons to a filature established in 
Philadelphia. In 1771, the quantity 
brought to this establishment from 
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Dela- 
ware, chiefly by ladies, was 1754 ll)s. 



172 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



4 ozs., of which Chester C\)unty [iro- 
duced 335 lbs. Of this, some resi- 
dents of Chester sent in tlie follow- 
ing quantity: — Al)igail Davis, 3 lbs. 
2 ozs. ; Henry Thomas, 8 lbs. 6 ozs. ; 
Jane Davis, 28 lbs. 12 ozs.; Jacob 
Worrall, 2 lbs. ; John Hoops, 23 lbs. 
10 ozs.; Margaret Reiley, 11 lbs. 10 
ozs." 

In the Pennsylvania Packet for Oct. 
II, 1770, a reward of four dollars is 
offered for the recovery of a black mare 
stolen from Davis Bevan, of Chester. 
By another advertisement in the same 
paper, Joseph Thomas appears to have 
been the -''Gaoler" at Chester, at that 
time; and in the issue of Dec. 27, 1770, 
is the following notice: 

" It being agreed l)y many JoLLY HuN- 
iKKS to meet at Christiana Ferry, and open 
the Xi:\v Vkar with a Fox-Chase, Notice 
is hereby given to all lovers of this noble 
and manly E.xercise, that a numerous and 
good Pack of Hounds will be collected at Mr. 
(Samuel) Morton's, as (sic) between Wilming- 
ton and New Castle, the ground is excel- 
lent and the Foxes very plenty." 

" There you shall hear 

Most gallant chiding; for beside the groves, 
The skies, the fountains, every region near 
Will seem one mutual cry." 

In the number for June 28, 1773, 
of the same paper, is a notice that, 
" On the tenth instant, was married at 
Chester, Mr. Joseph Mifflin, of this 
city, merchant, to Miss Debby Rich- 
ardson, daughter of Mr. Francis 
Richardson, of that place." It will 
be perceived from the above marriage 
notice, that the present fashion young 
ladies have of calling themselves Til- 
lie, Katie, Sallie, Sibbie, Minnie, ^-c, 
is merely a revival of an old custom of 
giving nick names, or pet names, .such 
as Debby, Nancy, Betsey, &c. I like 
the f)l(l way best : l)ut in mnrnnge 



notices the familiar household pet 
name should not be used ; it is in very 
bad taste. 

In the same journal for April 3, 
1779, there is offered for sale, three 
lots on Market street, Chester, in all 
80 by 120 feet, at the corner of Mid- 
dle street ; the first having a frame 
building for a store thereon, in the 
tenure of Francis Richardson ; the 2d, 
a two story brick, opposite Mr. Cowp- 
land's frequented and well-known tav- 
ern; 3d, vacant. The resident of Ches- 
ter will easily locate these lots as the 
property where Dr. Terrill lived, the 
store, the house to the south of his 
residence, and the vacant lot his gar- 
den, at the S. E. cor. 4th and Market 
streets. 

Watson, in his Annals, i vol. 560, 
says : " Col. Frank Richardson, was 
a person of great personal beauty and 
address, born of Quaker parentage at 
Chester. As he grew^ up and mixed 
with the British officers in Philadel- 
phia, he acquired a passion for their 
profession, went to London, got a 
commission, and at length became a 
Colonel of the King's Life Guards. 
This was about 1770." 

This may be an error as to his birth- 
place, his birth being recorded by 
Friends in Philadelphia as occurring 3 
mo. 15, 1746. His father and three 
of the younger children, Hannah, John 
and Deborah, became members of 
Chester meeting in 1773, and the son, 
John, was disowned in 1775, for taking 
part in military preparations. 

The above family of Richardson, 
must not be confounded with the pre- 
sent numerous family of the same 
name, residing in Philadelphia, many 
of whom are xmibrella manufacturers 
on Market street, and who are related 
to, and intermarried with the Hills 



HISTOKY OF CHESTEK. 



173 



and several other Delaware County 
families. The ancestors of the pre- 
sent family, were two brothers from 
L-eland, who came to this country 
about 1770; hence confusion might 
arise. 

Eliza, the sister of Sarah Anna 
Davis, widow of my late uncle, Robert 
P. Crosby, of Ridley creek quarries, 
m. Dr. John Howard Hill, a physi- 
cian at Hatboro, Montgomery County, 
Pa., afterwards a druggist of Philadel- 
phia, who is still living, a hale, hearty 
man, well advanced in years. One 
of his daughters, Kate, m. William 
H. Richardson, a son of one of the 
brothers who emigrated from Ireland ; 
and their son, Henry Richardson, 
married my cousin, Margaretta, a 
dau. of Charles R. Hawes and Sarah 
Ann Crosby, his wife, who is a dau. of 
Robert P. Crosby. They have one 
child, a son, called Gardiner Hawes. 
Charles R. Hawes, now deceased, was 
a son of the late Mayor of New York, 
Peter Hawes. 

Dr. John Howard Hill, above named, 
is a cousin of the late Peter, George 
W., William and John F. Hill, of 
Delaware County. They were the 
sons of Peter Hill, of Ridley, a miller 
during the Revolution. His teams 
and flour were taken by the Govern- 
ment in an emergency during the war, 
and afterwards the U. S. gave him a 
tract of land in Virginia, of 5000 
acres. One of my first cases was em- 
ploying Fitzhugh Lee, late a Con- 
federate General, to obtain possession 
of this land, near Clarksburg, Lee 
County, Virginia, in which we were i 
successful. And John F. Hill and his 
second wife, Mary Roberts, a de- 
scendant of the Brooms of Delaware, 
resided on a portion of the tract until 
driven away by the rebels. AVilliam 



and Mary Hill, of Delaware County, 
were early settlers there. Mary was 
a daughter of John Hunter, who was 
a native of the north of England, 
from Avhence he removed to County 
Wicklow, Ireland, to escape the per- 
secutions of theRomanish Stuart Kings 
after the Restoration, and married 
there a Miss Albans. He was a 
Trooper under William of Orange at 
the Battle of the Boyne, July i, 1690, 
and came to Chester County in the 
first quarter of the last Century, and 
died about 1736. 

William Hill died about 1747 leav- 
ing six children, Alexander, Mary, 
John, Peter, Christiana, and another 
whose name is not obtained. Four of 
them were minors and two were under 
ten years of age. The widow married 
James Bennett before 1751. 

J. Howard Hill, son of Dr. John 
Howard Hill, above named, was a 
I St Lieut, of the 2d Dragoons of the 
U. S. army. He graduated from the 
U. S. Military Academy, June 30, 
1839, and died in service during the 
Mexican war, at Puebla, Mexico, 
July 29, 1847. Another son, Na- 
thaniel Davis Hill, was one of my boy- 
hood's friends. He married Miss Sallie 
Haddock, a sister of Mr. Daniel Had- 
dock, Jr., a well known merchant of 
Philadelphia. He is now a resident 
of Washington Territory. Dr. John 
Howard Hill, is a grandson of John 
Hill, late a resident of Middletown, 
Delaware County, a brother of Peter 
Hill, the old miller of Ridley. 

Maria Davis, another sister of Mrs. 
Anna Robinson — for after the death of 
Robert P. Crosby, his widow married 
the late Captain Thomas Robinson — 
married Dr. William Bradley Tyler, of 
Frederick, Maryland. She\vasawidow 
when she married the Doctor, having 



174 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



been previous!)- married to Rol)ertMc- 
Pherson ; and 1 knew his son John 
Mcpherson, a merchant of Baltimore, 
and his sister Kate, who is still living. 
Miss Maria Tyler, a dau. of the Doctor 
and Maria, married a merchant of Balti- 
more, Mr. Thomas D. Belt. She has 
a brother, Bradley Tyler, and a step- 
sister, Eleanor Tyler, who married a 
Dr. William Johnson. A son of the last 
named couple, Bradley Johnson, is 
the former well known Confederate 
General. Dr. Tyler was a very pro-^ 
minent Democrat, and a candidate of 
that political party for Governor of the 
State, on one occasion. During the 
Rebellion, he was loyal, and sympa- 
thized strongly with the Government. 
When the Doctor married Mrs. Maria 
McPherson, he was a widower, with 
several children. 

The following copy of an old "Death 
Warrant," the original of which is 
in possession of William Sharpless, of 
West Chester, sufficiently explains it- 
self : 

[L. S.] CiE()R(;i-: the TiriRD, liy the Grace 
of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, 
King, Defender of the Faith, and soforth. 

To Jesse Maris, Sheriff of the County 
of Chester, within our Province of Pennsyl- 
vania, Esquire. — Whkrkas, At a Court of 
Oyer and Terminer and General (laol de- 
livery, held at Chester, on the nth day of 
June inst., before William Allen, John Law- 
rence and Thomas Willing, Esquires, our 
Justices, assigned by our Letters Patent, under 
the great seal of our said Province, a certain 
Matthew McMahan, late of said county, la- 
bourer, was presented, arraigned, tried for 
and convicted of Felony and Murder, by him 
the said Matthew McMahan committed on 
the body of a certain James McClester, 
and the said Matthew McMahan did then 
receive sentence of our said Court of Oyer 
and Terminer, that he should be hanged 
by the neck till he should be dead ; of which 
sentence execution remaincth Id be done. 
These are therefore to rcciuivc and (imnnand 



you to see and cause the said sentence to 1)C 
executed upon the said Matthew McMahan, 
at the usual place, within or near the town of 
Chester aforesaid, on Saturday the thirteenth 
day of June instant, between the hours of ten 
in the forenoon, and four in the afternoon of 
the same day, with full effect, as you will 
answer the neglect thereof at your peril. And 
we command all of our officers, Magistrates 
and others our subjects within our said Pro- 
vince, to be aiding and assisting you in this 
service. In testimony whereof, we have 
caused the lesser seal of our said Province to 
be hereunto affixed. Witness, John Penn, 
Esquire, by virtue of a commission from 
Thomas Penn, and Richard Penn, Esquires, 
true and absolute proprietaries of our said 
Province, and with our loyal approbation. 
Lieutenant Governor and Commander in Chief 
of the Province aforesaid, and the Counties of 
New Castle, Kent and Sussex on the Dela- 
ware, at Philadelphia, the twenty-first day of 
June, in the year of our Lord, one thousand 
seven hundred and seventy, and the tenth 
year of our reign. John Penn. 

Chester was not the scene of any 
very important events during the Re- 
volutionary war ; of what occurred in 
the county during that period. Smith's 
History gives a full account ; I shall 
therefore relate only such matters as 
hajjpened in Chester and its immedi- 
ate vicinity. 

On Dec. 20, 1774, a large number 
of the inhabitants of Chester County, 
assembled in the Court House in Ches- 
ter, for the purpose of choosing a Com- 
mittee " To carry into execution the 
Association of the late Continental 
Congress. ' ' The purposes of which 
were to take into consideration, mea- 
sures for defending their liberties. The 
following Committee was chosen : 



Anthony Wayne, 
Evan Evans, 
Francis Johnson, 
Richard Riley, 
Hugh Lloyd, 
James Moore, 
■fhomas Hockley, 
D.ivid Cowpland, 



Lewis Gronow, 
Joseph Taylor, 
Edw. Humphreys, 
Harry Lawrence, 
Wm. Montgomery, 
Pcrcifer Frazer, 
John Foiilkc, 
Joseph I'cnncll, 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



175 



Sketchley Morton, 
John Hart, 
John Crosby, 
Samuel Fairlamb, 
Isaac Eyre, 
Aaron Oakford, 
Nicholas Diehl, 
Benj'n Brannan, 
Jesse Bonsall, 
John Talbot, 
Samuel Price, 
Joseph Brown, 
John Taylor, 
John Crawford, 
Richard Thomas, 
William Miller, 
Walter Finney, 
Joseph Musgrave, 
James Evans, 
James Simpson, 
Jonathan Vernon, Jr 
David Wherry, 
William Edwards, 
Thomas Bishop, 
Joseph Gibbons, Jr., 
Thomas Evans, 

Lew 



Rob't Mendenhall, ' 
Nich's Fairlamb, 
George Peirce, 
Samuel Trimble, 
Charles Dilworth, 
John Hannum, 
George Hoops, 
Joel Bailey, 
John GiUiland, 
John Kcrlin, 
Joseph Bishop, Jr., 
William Lewis, 
Patrick Anderson, 
Dr. Branson Van Leer 
Edward Jones, 
William Evans, 
Thomas Hartman, 
Joseph Cowan, 
Joseph Evans, 
Patterson Bell, 
Thomas Haslep, 
Dr. Jonathan Morris, 
Andrew Mitchell, 
Thos. Buffington, 
James Bennett, 
Richard Flower, 
Davis, Sr. 



The committee elected Anthony 
Wayne, chairman, and Francis Rich- 
ardson, secretary, and after the trans- 
action of some business, adjourned to 
meet at the house of David Cowpland, 
in Chester, Jany, 9, 1775. All the 
meetings at Chester, were held at his 
house. 

Caleb Cowpland, who was appointed 
one of the Justices of the Supreme 
Provincial Court of Pennsylvania in 
1750, was the brother of David Cowp- 
land, above mentioned. David built 
the dwelling house now occupied by 
the daughters of the late Davis B. 
Stacey. And, as before stated, Agnes 
Cowpland, a daughter of David, mar- 
ried Davis Bevan. During the Re- 
volution, David Cowpland was taken 
from his bed in the middle of the 
night, and carried on board of a 
British vessel of war, then lying off 
Chester. The name of the vessel was 
the ' ' Vulture. ' ' The exact date of this 
occurrence is unknown, but it must 
have been after the battle of Brandy- 
wine, and probably tluring the lime the 



British occupied Philadelphia. While 
on board the English vessel, Mr. Cowp- 
land contracted the ship fever from 
exposure and hard usage, which to a 
man of his then great age, proved fatal. 
When he was nearly at death's door, 
he was set on shore and died soon 
afterwards, one of the numerous vic- 
tims of the uncalled for brutality of 
Englishmen. He was a member of 
the Committee of Safety for Chester 
County as will be seen by the above 
Ust ; a firm friend of American Inde- 
pendence, and a personal friend of 
General Lafayette, who had been en- 
tertained at his house in Chester. 

A Jonathan Cowpland on Feb. i, 
1777, commanded the armed boat 
Basilisk, and on April i, 1777, was 
transferred to the Hawk. 

In the year 1776, there was a con- 
siderable body of troops raised for the 
defence of the Province, stationed at 
Chester and Marcus Hook. It appear- 
ing that there was not a sufficient num- 
ber of houses in those two towns in 
which to quarter the soldiers, the Com- 
mittee of Safety, on the 13th of April, 
directed "that the Committee do pro- 
cure for the use of said Troops 100 
good tents. "At Marcus Hook two 
tiers of Chevaux-de-frize were sunk in 
the channel opposite the town, but no 
harbor defences seem to have been 
erected at Chester. 

The Provincials had quite a fleet of 
armed boats at this time, consisting 
of 15 vessels, manned by 679 men. 
One craft was a Floating battery, and 
one ship the "Montgomery." They 
do not seem to have cruised much 
below New Castle. Captain Reed 
commanded the Flotilla. On May 8, 
1776, his fleet attacked the British 
frigate " Roebuck," 44 guns, and the 
"Liverpool," 28 guns, off Wilming- 



176 



HISTORY OF CHESTEK. 



ton, to |)rcvent their ascending the 
river. Col. Samuel Miles went down 
with 150 riflemen, and witnessed the 
engagement. He reported ' ' Our Boats 
and the Men of War have been engaged 
for two hours, at long shot. I believe 
there is no damage done on either 
side." There was much disappoint- 
ment expressed at the failure of the 
"Gondolas," and other armed boats 
to capture the enemy's vessels, but as 
Captain Reed was directed by the 
Committee of Safety, to be careful and 
not expose any of the boats to capture 
or destruction, perhaps that accounts 
for his want of success, and engaging 
the enemy at long shot. See 4 Penna. 
Archives, 748. 

In May, 1776, there must have been 
cjuite a Provincial land force stationed 
at Chester, as the Committee of Safety 
ordered Robert Towers "to deliver to 
Col. Samuel Miles, for the use of the 
Provincial Troops under his command, 
1000 lbs. of gunpowder and 2,000 
lbs. of lead, or as great a part thereof 
as in store. Also 20,000 cartridges 
for muskets, for the use of the Asso- 
ciators of Chester County;" and the 
next day the commissary was directed 
" to send down to Chester, for the use 
of the Provincial Troops under Col. 
Miles, sixty fire-locks." This does 
not indicate a large force, but after- 
events show that he had a large force 
under his command ; for it becoming 
known to the authorities, that New 
York and not Philadelphia, was to be 
attacked by the British forces, Col. 
Miles was on July 2, 1776, ordered to 
march his battalions to Philadelphia. 
Col. Miles' command consisted of two 
battalions, consisting of 971 officers 
and men. Col. Atlee commanded a 
battalion of 444 officers and men, and 
f'aptain Tliomas Proctor's Artillcr\', 



numbering 117 officers and men, were 
in the command. 4 Pa. Archives, 1 80. 
Col. Miles in his Journal, i Penna. 
Archives, 519, (2d series) says: — 

" In the spring of 1776, I was appointed to 
the command of a regiment of riflemen, con- 
sisting of 1,000 men, foniied in two battalions. 
Nearly the whole of this number was raised in 
about six weeks, and rendezvous at Marcus 
Hook, when the Row Gallies were ordered 
down the river to attack the Roebuck and her 
companion. I left the Council of Safety in the 
evening with some powder and lead for my rifle- 
men, and in the morning marched about 150 
of them, which were all I could equip in time, 
to Wilmington, and saw the whole of that ac- 
tion, and I am convinced that had the Gallies 
been sufficiently supplied with ammunition in 
due time, (although one-half of them appeared 
very shy and never came within point blank 
sh(5t of the ships,) that those vessels, at leasts 
the Roebuck, would have fallen into ourhands. 

A few days after this action I was ordered 
to march 500 men to suppress an insurrection 
in Sussex county, Delaware, but before I got 
to Lewibtown,the insurgents had dispersed and 
the ringleaders made their escape to the East- 
ern shore of Maryland. On my return from 
I.cwistown, I was immediately ordered to send 
a body of men to suppress an insurrection in 
Monmouth county, N. Jersey, and Lt. Col. 
Brodhead was sent with a detachment of about 
400 men, but the whigs of that State had com- 
pleted the business before his arrival. He pro- 
ceeded in obedience to orders and joined Gen- 
eral Mercer, at Amboy, and the next day the 
whole of the regiment remaining began its 
march for the same place, as did Col. Atlee's 
battalion of musketry and Cap. Proctor's com- 
pany of artillery. Not many days afterwards 
we got to Amboy, General Roberdeau arrived 
there to take command of the Flying camp, of 
which, by a resolution of the Assembly, our 
corps was to form a ])art; the General to com- 
mand the Flying camp w as elected by the 
ofticers of the militia, who had been selected 
to be added to Col. Atlee's corps and mine, to 
make up that body ; they met at Lancaster and 
elected Daniel Roberdeau. As we had no 
choice in electing the General, we refused to 
serve under him. The General was therefore 
at Amlioy for sonic lime w itliout any command. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



177 



My regiment was soon ordered to join the army 
at New York. At that time General Wash- 
ington had 24,000 men in his army, upwards 
of 7000 of whom were returned sick and unfit 
for duty." 

On the day of the battle of Long Is- 
land, Aug. 27, 1 776, a return was made 
of the troops quartered near Philadel- 
phia. One battalion is mentioned as 
being in the barracks. Colonel (name 
indistinct) 's Battalion. Captains — 
John Hart, 41 men ; Thos. Lewis, 
24; Nich's Diehl, 38; Nath. Vernon, 
27 ; John Crosby, 42 ; And'w Boon, 34. 
This was one of the Chester County 
battalions. Li my researches of the 
Crosby family I discovered that Capt. 
Crosby was in Col. Morgan's regiment, 
but neglected to note my authority. 

The following list of the names of 
Chester County officers and men in 
the 5th Regiment of the Pennsylvania 
line, commanded by Col. Robert Ma- 
gaw, and captured at Fort Washington, 
Nov. 1 6th, 1776, is copied from a com- 
munication in the Evening Bulletin 
of Philadelphia, of Sept. 30, 1873, 
viz. : John Richardson, Lieutenant ; 
James Wilson, and Samuel Shaw, Ser- 
geants j Timothy Moriarty and Ar- 
thur White, privates, of Chester. John 
Rudolph, Lieutenant; Thomas Fields, 
Sergeant ; John Porter, Ezekiel Pop- 
lin, Thomas Pendergrass, (died in 
prison,) Arthur Cook, John Poplin, 
John Robinson, John Moore, Michael 
Ligan, Jonathan Earle, and Dennis 
Kelly, privates, Derby. Robert Wil- 
kins, Lieut. ; John McGilton, Robert 
Glass, Joseph Walker and Charles 
Magee, privates, Chester County. 

This battalion was the first Penn- 
sylvania regiment mustered into the 
army of the Revolution, with Col. 
William Thompson, of Carlisle, as its 
Colonel ; his commission bears date 



June 25, 1775. The regiment arrived 
at Cambridge, Massachusetts, Aug. 8, 
1775. On the 8th of March, 1776, 
Col. Thompson, was made a Brigadier 
General. He was taken prisoner on 
the Expedition to Quebec, and re- 
mained a captive until Oct. 25, 1780, 
when he was exchanged for Major 
General Riedesel, who commanded 
the German auxiliaries {Briinswickers) 
in Burgoyne's Army, at the time of its 
capture at Saratoga. Gen. Thompson 
died at Carlisle, Sept. 3, 1781, aged 
45 years. 

Col. Robert Magaw, who succeeded 
General Thompson in command of 
the 5th Penna., was a celebrated law- 
yer of Carlisle. He was commissioned 
Colonel of the 5th, early in 1776. 
He married Henrietta, the daughter 
of Rutger Van Brunt, of Long Island, 
[in 1780,] where he was a prisoner of 
war for four years after the surrender 
of Fort Washington. He died in 1 790, 
leaving two children, Elizabeth, and 
a son. Van Brunt Magaw. Col. Ma- 
gaw was a brother of the Rev. Samuel 
Magaw, who was elected Vice Provost 
of the University of Philadelphia, in 
1782. 

In the summer of 1777, Chester was 
again occupied by the American forces. 
On the 25th of August, the British 
fleet passed up the Elk River to the 
head of navigation, and General Howe 
landed with a well appointed force of 
18,000 men. On the day before the 
Continental Army passed through 
Philadelphia on its way to Brandy- 
wine, General John Armstrong was 
ordered to take command of the Mili- 
tia at Chester. On the 25th of April, 
at the request of Congress, a call had 
been made for 3000 militia, one-half 
of which had been placed in camp at 
or near Chester. At tliis time the 



178 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



number of men returned in C 'Hester 
County as eapable of bearing arms, 
was 5000. 

Washington passed through Chester 
Aug. I, 1777, and wrote from there 
to Gen. Putnam. {Sparks' Corrcs- 
poiiih'iicc of Washingto7i, 5 vol. 2,) 
and on Sept. 11, 1777, the famous 
battle of Brandywine was fought. The 
American army was defeated, and re- 
treated that night to Chester, from 
whence Washington w'rote the same 
night, at 12 o'clock, to Congress, an- 
nouncing the disaster, saying, among 
other things, " I have directed all the 
troops to assemble behind Chester, 
where they are now arranging for the 
night." The next day he marched 
his army to Philadelphia. The British 
army encamped at Village Green a 
few days after the battle. On the 13th 
a portion of the British force occupied 
Chester. 

The following notice is from the 
Pennsylvania Packet, of Sept. 21, 1779: 

" Chester County, ss. 

Notice is hereby jriven to those who have 
suffered by the inroads and depredations of the 
enemy, that an appeal will be held in the Bo- 
rough of Chester, on the 21st instant. At Dil- 
Wvjrth's tavern^ in the township of Birming- 
ham, on the 22d ; and at Kerlin's tavern, in 
the township of East Whiteland, on the 23d 
instant, in order to make such allowances out 
of the last year State and quota taxes, as cir- 
cumstances may permit. 

Signed, Skktchley Morton, 

David Cloud, 
Andrew Boyd, 

Sept. 8, 1779. Commissioncrf.r 

I have not been fortunate enough to 
find the law appointing the above com- 
missioners, and cannot therefore tell 
what its precise object was, although 
it appears to be evident that the suf- 
ferers from the depredations of the 
enemy were to have a certain remission 



of taxes to indemnify them for the 
losses they had sustained. 

The enemy plundered the inhabi- 
tants of the county, during their stay, 
without any mercy. Some families 
were reduced to poverty, being stripj^ed 
of every thing they possessed. Whigs 
and tories both suffered alike from the 
common soldiers, who finding the 
country rich in agricultural products, 
and the houses filled with all the real 
comforts of life, helped themselves 
without stint to all they needed, or 
even fancied, and carried off or de- 
stroyed many things for which they 
had no use whatever. An official state- 
ment of the losses sustained by each 
person, was afterwards made, in pur- 
suance of an Act of Assembly of the 
2ist of Sept. 1782, and 'the following 
is a list of those who suffered in Ches- 
ter township, together with the amount 
of damage sustained by each, viz : — 



From John Crosby 

The late David Cowpland, 

Renj'n Bartholomew, stolen by British 
army under General Howe, 

Alex. Mills, by Mr. Johnson, Commissa- 
sary of the British army, commanded 
by Count Dunop and Col. Sterling, 

Sarah Day's furniture, destroyed by the 
British, ■s.^^■]-%, when in Philadelphia, 

Estate of James Mathers, by a party of 
Scotch and Hessians, when marching 
from Wilmington to Philadelphia, 

Edward Vernon, by the same, . 

Sarah Thomas " " 

Wm. Evans, team pressed, 

George Spear, saddle, .... 

William Kerlin, harness, .... 

Thomas Logan, sundries, 

Elisha Price, cart, 

Henry Myers, a cow, .... 

Thomas Pedrick, horse, .... 

James Beatty, sundries, .... 

John Odenheimer, 2 horses, 

Raper Hoskins, sundries, 

Mary Withy, " ... 

Rob't Ferguson, " ... 

Estate of Capt. Stork, sundries, 

" Val. Weaver, "... 

" Mary Norris, "... 

Martin Carter, "... 

John Powell, "... 

Widow Deacon's estate, "... 



7 6 



£ J 
1 

72 o o 

43 o o 

,796 4 o 

20 o o 

62 o o 

33 5 o 



600 

6 10 o 
13 o o 

600 

7 10 o 
20 o o 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



179 



£ s.d. 

John Hogan, sundries, . . . . 1500 

Joseph Neidy, by Britieh under Cornwallis, 27 o o 

Ann Davis, " " " 500 

Henry Hale Graham, " " 25 o o 

Zedekiah H. Graham, " " 20 o o 

Adam Grubb, " " 51 12 o 



Taken from 31 persons in Chester, £2,742 12 6 

Whether these amounts were ever 
refunded to the sufferers or not, I can- 
not say. 

The act of Sept. 21, 1782, being 
obsolete, is not given in my old edi- 
tion of the laws of Pennsylvania, by 
Alexander James Dallas, published in 
1793, but in Vol. 2, p. 80, a synopsis 
is given of it, thus: "An Act for 
procuring an estimate of the damages 
sustained by the inhabitants of Penn- 
sylvania from the troops and adherents 
of the King of Great Britain during 
the present war." Recorded in Law 
Book No. 2, 26. And in a note it 
is stated, "By this Act the County 
Commissioners of every county which 
had been invaded, were directed to 
call on the Assessors and procure and 
return accounts and estimates of the 
damages that had been done by the 
enemy since the i8th of April, 1775, 
to register such accounts and estimates, 
and to transmit the originals to the 
Executive Council." Nothing is said 
about paying the sufferers, but no 
doubt the intent of the Act was that 
they should be in some way paid or 
indemnified. 

XVIII. 

In 1777, the British General Howe, 

having completed a line of defence 

from the Schuylkill to the Delaware, 

and a reinforcement of troops from 

New York having arrived at Chester, 

he felt strong enough to place an army 

in New Jersey, sufficient to reduce 

Fort " Mercer" without jeopardizing 
34 



his troops in Philadelphia ; accord- 
ingly at noon on the 17th of Nov., 
Lord Cornwallis crossed the middle 
Ferry with 3000 men, and taking the 
Darby Road proceeded to Chester, 
where he united his forces with those 
from New York, and the whole force 
embarked the next day on board of 
transports, and on the 19th they landed 
at Billingsport, N. J. General Greene, 
finding they had a superior force, aban- 
doned the Fort, recrossed the Dela- 
ware, and the American fleet passed 
up the river and by Philadelphia, with- 
out molestation. Thus the British 
General effected a junction with his 
fleet ; Fort Mifflin having been pre- 
viously evacuated. See Smith's His- 
tory, 324. 

In the "Accounts of Penn'a," will 
be found the accounts of Thomas Tuc- 
ker and Samuel Cunningham, Collec- 
tors of Excise in Chester County, from 
Aug. I, 1776 to Nov. 7, 1783. The 
following is a list of the persons 



Paying 
Caleb Way, 
Arthur Parke, 
John Sowder, 
Timothy Kirke, 
James Miller, 
John Swisher, 
Nathan Beaker, 
Nehemiah Matson, 
John Webster, 
Rob't Darlington, 
George Graham, 
George Robeson, 
William Burns, 
John Vallentine, 
Walter Hood, 
John Wilmor, 
Thomas Lunn, 
John Underwood, 
William Thomson, 
Mary Muller, 
Peter Mather, 
Richard Jacobs, 
William Kerlin, 
Edward Vernon, 
John Scantling, 
William Price, 
Thomas Moore, 
Sarah Gill, 
Isaac Taylor, 



Excise. 
Richard Cleyton, 
Alexander Clay, 
John Jerman, 
Thos. Carpenter, 
Abner Cloud, 
Wm. Beaumont, 
Thos. Beaumont, 
Benj. Brannen, Esq. 
Edward Horn, 
Joseph Smith, 
Samuel Dickey, 
John Kinege, 
William Henry, 
John Walker. 
Daniel Stever, 
John Bowan, 
Dav. Woodside, 
Joseph Furey, 
Henry Brower, 
Zachariah Rice, 
James Graham, 
Thos. Douglass, 
Thomas Rider, 
Ale.v. McCalley, 
Joseph Black, 
Jona. Valentine, 
Jacob Langacker, 
Isaac Thomas, 
Jno. McClenachan, 



180 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



Jonathan Morris, 
Samuel Johnson, 
Harrj' Heays, Esq., 
Ann Bryce, 
Jamima Lenard, 
Ann Davies, 
John Ross. 
David Hayes, 
Nathan Edwards, 
Andrew Mclntyre, 
John Brown, 
Frederick Wendt, 
Isaac Shounk, 
Ephriam Jones, 
James Hannum, 
Jacob Sinke, 
Abel Hudson, 
Isaac Thomson, 
Rob't Kennedy, 
Alexander Bougs, 
George Hoops, 
James Batton, 
Elizabeth Anderson, 
Francis Hickman, 
James Way, 
John Philips, 
Caleb Taylor, 
Ezekial Webb, 
David Lions, 
Richard Thornbury, 
Casper Stonemetz, 
Rob't Dunwideys, 
John Fillson, 
John Irwin, 
Isaac Griffith, 
William Cleyton, 
John West, 
Joseph Gibbons, 
Mary Howel, 
Phil. Housekeeper, 
John Tenny, 
John Moore, 
Richard Harkely, 
Jas. Woodward, 
John Woodward, 
John Rhoads, 
Sebaston Rulle, 
Allen Cunningham, 
Gideon Gilphin, 
_ Samuel Painter, 
Joseph Chandler, 
Elizabeth Kelly, 
Thenis Messey, 
Parker Askew, 
Bartholomew Sutton, 
Peter Bell, 
James McDowel, 
Thos. Downing, 
George Pierce, 
George Crismer, 
Robert Lamburn, 
Isaac Dutton, 
David Wheny, 
Is. Lawrence, 
Jas. McMuUcn, 
Israel Wheelen, 
Charles Fausett, 
John Miller, 



Jnl,„ Witner, 

John Baugh, 
John McKee, 
John Evans, 
Elizabeth Peters, 
John Harper, 
Mary Evans, 
Nath'l Squabb, 
John liryce, 
Henry Chrisman, 
Isaac Allen, 
Ezekiel Lcnord, 
Phil. Dougharty, 
John Buckwalter, 
Edward Lean, 
Patrick Cochran, 
John High, 
Valentine Miller, 
John Lawshey, 
Mordecai Piersol, 
John Kcriin, 
Davewalt Beaver, 
Steven Cochran, 
Roger Davis, 
John Ogden, 
Mearey Withey 
John Fawks, 
Robert Moulder, 
David Willey, 
Sim. Litzenberger, 
Frederick Ingle, 
Rob't Furgeson, 
James Dunwidey, 
John Buyers, 
Joseph Doweler, 
Jacob Coffman, 
Christian Sucke, 
William Dewecs, 
George Lappe, 
Martin Vice, 
John Craig, 
Richard Shewal, 
Caleb James, 
Esther Musgrove, 
Alex. McCaracher, 
John Gardiner, 
Eli Baley, 
Thomas Jackson, 
Caleb Pirce & Co., 
David Cloyd, 
Wil.son & Davis, 
Phineas Whitakcr, 
Ed. Woodward, 
Askew & Hutton, 
Gardner & Douthal, 
Phillip Benner, 
John Kremer, 
Isaac Webb, 
Joshua Vernon, 
Zeb. Holingsworth, 
Jno. Righnhart, 
James Elliot, 
Michael Lovin, 
John Pyle, 
John Steel, 
John Haas, 
David Brown, 



Dan'l B.ickwatcr, 
Henry Deem, 
Abram Sharadon, 
Amos Mendinghall, 
John Dimond, 

E.rcisr 
Benj'n Wallace, 
Jos. Bartholomew. 
Peter Wade, 
Chas. Dilworth, 
Rich'd Robeson, 
Widow Wilson, 
Widow Moore, 
John Flower, 
Joseph Branton, 
John Faroks, 
John Quindrel, 
James Comens, 
C. & G. North, 
Peter Hartman, 
John Jackson, 
Philip Rapp, 
William Starritt. 
Penelope Haley, 
William Carver, 
William Robeson, 

Christ. 



Christian Beery, 
James Climson, 
Atim. Holderman, 
Jessey Peneck, 
Henry Hays. 

Unpaid. 

John Garrett, 
Ephriam Davis, 
John Holt, 
Benj'n Miller, 
Christian Risk, 
Henry Hinshey, 
Mark Willcox, 
John Thomas, 
John demon, 
Dani Shoemaker, 
Nathan Scoffold, 
John Furguson, 
Peter Shofnevlcr, 
John Robeson, 
Meras Myers, 
Henry Biggord, 
John Gregory, 
John Jones, 
John Griffith, 
George Spade, 

Harmsh. 



In the same work, Samuel Miles is 
named as the Col. of a Pa. Rifle regi- 
ment, and Samuel J. Atlee, Col., and 
Caleb Parry,* Lt. Col. of Musketry. 
In Colonial Records, I find Jacob Ru- 
dolph, 1777, Robert Elton, 1777, under 
Col. John Gardner, Samuel Vanleer, 
1777, and John Craig, 1 781, mentioned 
as Captains of Militia. Lt. Col. Danl. 
Brodhead in a letter from Kings- 
bridge, Sept. 5, 1776, after the battle 
of Long Island, says: — "Col. Miles 
& Col. Piper are pri.soners, and I 
hear are well treated ; poor Atley I 
hear nothing of; Col. Parry died like 
a Hero." 

Commissioners of Forfeited Estates. 
William Evans, Col. Jno. Hannum, 

Thomas Levis, Patterson Bell. 

Members of the Supreme Executive Council from 

Chester County. 

Ralph Withers, 1683 Francis Harrison, 1685 

John Symcocke " John Bristow, 1687 

William Clayton, " Bartho. Coppick, 1688 

William Wood, 1684 John. Blumston,^^^/. 1690 

Thomas Lloyd, " \\'m.\lo\ve\\,decl'd " 

* For an iiUcresliny sketch of the Party fami- 
ly, see Gen. Davis' I/istorv of Buei-s Coiintv, 
p. 68i,&c. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



181 



George Foreman, 


1693 


John Mackey, 


1777 


David Lloyd, 


1695 


Dr. John McDowell, 


1778 


Caleb Pusey, 




Dr. Joseph Gardiner 


1779 


George Harris, 


" 


Evan Evans, 


1785 


John ffinney, 


1702 


Richard Willing, 


1788 


John Evans, 


1777 







Collectors 0/ Excise. 
Caleb Cowpland, 1729 Thomas Tucker, 1773 

John Owen, 1734 Samuel Cunningham, 1778 

Thomas Cummings, 1740 John Christie, 1783 

Jeremiah Starr, 1752 Phillip Sheaf, 1789 

Charles Humphreys, 1756 

Co7}iJiiiss2oners of Fisheries. 
John Churchman, 1785 John Turbutt, 1785 

County Lieutenants. 
Robert Smith, 1777 Joseph McClelland, 1787 

Charles Dilworth, 1786 Luke Morris, 1789 

for Delaivare County. 

Sub-Lieutenants. 
Benj'n Brannon, 1777 Thomas Strawbridge, 1777 

Lewis Gronow, " Robert Wilson, 1778 

Andrew Boyd, " Thomas Levis, " 

Thomas Cheyney, " 

Paymasters. 
John Beaton, 1777 James ISIoore, 1777 

Wagon-Masters . 
Jesse Jordan, Andrew Boyd, 1778 

Thomas Boyd, 1778 John Moore. 

Coviviissioners 0/ Purchases. 

Thomas Heslit, ^778 John Beaton, 1780 

Sam. Culbertson, " William Evans, " 

Smith Futhey, " John Crosby, Jr., " 

Col. Persifer Frazier, 178O John Hannum, " 

Robert Young was Collector of Taxes, 
1 786. Henry Valentine, Issuing Com- 
missary, 1780. Capt. Elijah Weed, 
Storekeeper at Downingtown, 1778. 
David Watson, Purchaser of Flour, 
1780. William Boyd, Collector of 
Taxes in 1780, was murdered by John 
or Robert Smith, a reward of ^20,000 
was offered by Council for their ap- 
prehension. 12 Cfll. Rec, 349. 

In 1776 Chester Co. had five battal- 
ions of Militia, ist, commanded by 
Col. James Moore ; 2d, Col. Thomas 
Hockley ; 3d, Col. Hugh Lloyd ; 4th, 
Col. Wm. Montgomery, and 5th, Col. 
Rich'd Thomas. 

In May, 1776, Dr. Robert Harris 
was in charge of a Powder Mill on 
Cromb Cr. about 3 miles from Chester. 
Mill house 20 x 30 ft., head of water 
2^ ft., fall 6 ft., water wheel 12 feet. 



The shaft (worked 80 stampers of 2^ 
X 3^ inches and 11 feet long,) 32 feet 
long, 5 mortars of 2 in. plank, about 5 
ft. each. One mortar and stamper for 
preparing sulphur. Drying-house 15 
X 30 ft., neither floored nor plastered. 
He reported that he expected to fur- 
nish a ton of powder weekly. 

In \\\Q Penna. Archives, 7 vol. 21 to 
40, (i 778), will be found twelve several 
petitions, among the names attached to 
which will be found those of the prin- 
cipal inhabitants of Chester County ; 
whole families appear to have signed, 
one after the other. 

On Mar. 17, 1777, Fire boats and 
rafts were ordered to be stationed in 
Darby Creek by the Navy Board, and 
on the 29th, Commodore Hazel wood 
was directed to erect a Battery at or 
near the mouth of the creek for their 
protection, he thinking the same neces- 
sary. 

By proceedings of the State Navy 
Board, April 10, 1777, it appears that 
the Signal and Alarm Post, No. 8, was 
at Chester, and that during 1776 the 
Post was in charge of Mr. (John) 
Coburn, and he was continued, but on 
account of some neglect, Mr. Grubb 
"of that Place" was directed to see 
that he attended to his duties. 

July 19, 1777, boats were ordered 
to be sent to Gen. Potter to convey the 
Militia from Chester to Billingsport, 
and the Accommodation sloop from 
Darby Creek for the same purpose. On 
Sept. 4, the five Guard boats at Hen- 
lopen were ordered to their stations at 
the mouth of Darby Creek. On the 
1 2th, 20 shovels were delivered to Col. 
John Eyre for the use of the Fort at 
Darby Cr. mouth. John, Benj. G. and 
Manuel Eyre were brothers, and noted 
shipwrights of Philadelphia. 

During the fall of 1777, while Ches- 



182 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



ter was in the possession of the IJritish 
forces, it must have been a busy place. 
Major John Clarke, Jr., writing from 
Mrs. Withey's, Nov. 19, 1777, says, 
about 80 sail lie opposite to this place, 
and 80 opposite Billingsport. They 
have plundered the neighboring inhabi- 
tants of everything. Clark's letters 
to Washington, 36 pages, will be found 
in the Bulletin of the Historical Society, 
ist volume. 

The Supreme Executive Council, 
Aug. 8, 1780, by resolution^ directed 
the following persons, under the direc- 
tion of Col. Andrew Boyd, wagon- 
master, to collect the quota of horses 
in the County of Chester, viz : — David 
Denny, ist battalion ; Owen Thomas, 
2d; Joseph Luckey, 3d ; David Wilson, 
4th ; Thomas Strawbridge, 5 th ; John 
Crosby, 6th ; George Peirce, 7th ; and 
Joseph Spear, 8th. 

In 1684 Charles Ashcome was De- 
puty Surveyor for the county :. John 
Taylor in 1728; Thomas Tucker in 
1785- 

Provincial Deputies from Chester Co., 1774. 
Francis Richardson, Anthony Wayne, 

John Hart, Elisha Price, 

Hugh Lloyd, John Sellers, 

Francis Johnston, Richard Reiley. 

PrcTi-'incial Convention Delegates in 1775. 
Anthony Wayne, Lewis Davis, 

Hugh Lloyd, Wni. Montgomery, 

Richard Thomas, Joseph Musgrave, 

Francis Johnson, Joshua Evans, 

Samuel Fairlamb, Pcrsifer Frazer. 

Provincial Conference , 1776. 
Col. Richard Thomas, Col. Wm. Montgomery, 
Maj. Wm. Evans, Col. Hugh Lloyd, 

Col. Thos. Hockley, Richard Reiley, Esq., 

Maj. Caleb Davis, Col. Evan Evans, 

Elisha Price, Esq., Col. Lewis Grono, 

Samuel Fairlamb, Maj. Sketchley Morton. 

Capt. Thos. I^vis, 

Delegates to Convention, 1776. 
Ben. Bortholomcw, John Jacobs, 

Thos. Strawbridge, Robert Smith, 

Sam'l Cunningham, John Hart, 

John Mackey, John Fleming. 

Collectors 0/ Continental Loan, Dec. 16, 1777. 
Alex. Johnston, George Irwin, 

John Bartholomew, Andrew Boyd, Ir., 

Thomas Cheney, 



Commissioners of Traitors' Effects, Oct. 21, 1777. 
William Evans, Patterson Bell, 

Thomas Cheney, William Gibbons, 

Thomas Levis, Is.iac Taylor, 

Capt. Wm. Brooke. 

The following itemsof Revolutionary 
news are taken from the proceedings of 
the Supreme Executive Council, July 
29> 1777- John Pearson, Nicholas, 
Diehl, Isaac Hendrickson, Isaac Serrill, 
Harvey Lewis, and Jacob Richards, 
were appointed a committee for driving 
off stock on the enemies' approach. 

Nov. 8, 1777, the following persons 
were appointed to collect of those who 
had not taken the oath of allegiance, 
certain enumerated articles of clothing 
for the army, viz: — 



Maj. Cromwell Peirce, 
Capt. John Gardiner, 
John Wilson, 
Capt. William Brookes, 
Col. Thomas Taylor, 
Elijah McClenaghan, 
Capt. Benj'n Wallace, 
Co^ George Pierce, 
Samuel Holliday, 
Col. William Evans, 
Capt. Samuel Vanleer. 



Col. Evan Evans, 
Capt. John Ramsey, 
Patterson Bell, Esq., 
Capt. McCay, Concord, 
Capt. Allen Cunningham 
Capt. Israel Whellan, 
Thomas Levis, Esq., 
Capt. David Coupland, 
Philip Scott, Esq., 
Thomas Boyd, Esq. 
William Gibbons, 



From the Pennsylvanische Staats 
Courier or Current Weekly Ne7vs, No. 
745, published at Philadelphia, Wed- 
nesday, May 6, 1778, by Christopher 
Saur Jr., and Peter Saur, in 2 Street, 

" We are assured cjf the truth of the foUow- 
iny circumstances which occurred at Chester. 
At the beginning of this week two persons 
made an excellent draught of fish, and w ere in 
tiie act of dividing them in a store house at the 
water's side, when two light-horsemen came 
down and inquired of a woman who lived near- 
iiy, what they were doing, who rejjlied to them, 
they were neighbors who had been fishing. 
Whilst the woman was still conversing with 
them and one of the tisliermcn liad taken his 
portion, and in the act of going away, one of 
these heroes rode up to him and asked him 
where he was taking the fi.sh. To my house, 
was the answer. Hereupon the horseman rode 
so closely to the poor man, that he set fire to 
I his coat from the ]ian of his pistol, anil shot him 
I without further ceremony, dead on the spot. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



183 



The other rode to the warehouse where the 
second unhappy fisherman was, cursed hini for 
a tory, and instantly shot him to death, although 
he was surrounded by a number of children." 

The paper was of course, Tory, and 
was a continuation of the Saur German- 
town paper, as I conjecture from the 
numbering ; I have never seen an origi- 
nal. The contents of May 6, are con- 
tained in Schlozer's Brief Wechsel, 
Gottingen, 1780. 

April I , an order was drawn in favor of 
Stephen Cochran, Esq., for ^^2000, to 
be paid to Samuel Futhey to purchase 
horses to mount the cavalry, and Wil- 
liam Evans, Thomas Cheny, Thomas 
Levis, Patterson Bell and John Han- 
num, were appointed Commissioners 
of Forfeited Estates. On Sept. 15, 
Thomas Coburn was paid for attending 
the flag at Chester from July 4, 1777 
to Sept. 13, 1777. 

Sept. 15, 1778. James Fitzpatrick, 
Blacksmith, was " convicted on his own 
confession of larceny and burglary, ' ' at 
Chester, and sentenced to be hanged. 
Ordered that he be executed on the 
2ist, at the usual place of execution. 
^GQ. 11 Colonial Records, e^^2. Heat- 
tempted to escape, and was removed 
to Philadelphia for safe keeping, and 
was not sent back to Chester gaol until 
the 25th, and was hanged on the 26th. 
A reward of ^1000 had been offered 
by the Council for his capture, $500 of 
which was paid to Mrs. Rachel Walker, 
and ^500 to Capt. Robert McAffee. 
Some of the occurrences at his capture 
are set forth in 11 Col. i?., 616, 617. 

From these and other sources, I find 
that James Fitzpatrick, was born in 
Chester County of Irish parents, and 
learned blacksmithing with John Pass- 
more at Doe Run ; he was noted for his 
enormous strength. When the Revo- 
lutionary war broke out he enlisted in 



the Militia, and marched to New York; 
there he deserted, swam the Hudson, 
and returned home, was arrested and 
imprisoned in the Walnut St. Prison, 
Philadelphia ; was released on re-enlist- 
ing, but deserted again. In 1777 he 
was re-arrested while at work, mowing 
in one of Mr. Passmore's fields, but 
getting his captors. Continental sol- 
diers, to allow him to go to his house, 
he there seized his rifle and drove them 
off, and was not again disturbed. Wlien 
Gen. Howe landed his forces at the head 
of Elk, he joined the British army, and 
fought against his country at Brandy- 
wine. He accompanied the British to 
Philadelphia, and from there, in com- 
pany with Mordecai Dougherty, who 
was brought up by Nathan Hayes near 
Doe Run, he made many foraging raids 
on his former acquaintances in Chester 
County; after the British evacuated 
Philadelphia, he seems to have desert- 
ed their service in 1778, and he and 
his companion located themselves at 
Hand's pass, near the present Coates- 
ville. Here as the captain of a band of 
outlaws, with Dougherty as his lieuten- 
ant, he became a terror to the inhabi- 
tants, and many a story is still told of 
"Capt. Fitz," and his bold adven- 
tures. He was a tall handsome man and 
very gallant to the women. On the 
evening of Aug. 23, 1778, he went to 
the house of Wm. McAffee, in Edge- 
mont, near Castle rock, a cluster of 
peculiar boulders often visited by the 
curious. "Capt. Fitz"demanded;,ri5o 
of McAffee, who was a well known 
Whig, and proceeded to help himself 
to what he wanted. There appears to 
have been quite a number of people in 
the house at the time. McAffee and 
his wife, Mrs. Rachel Walker, David 
Cunningham, a boy, and Capt. Robert 
McAffee of the Militia. Mrs. W. says, 



184 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



she was up stairs, heard screaming and 
came tlown ; a boy told her Capt. Fitz 
was there. Fitz asked her liow she was, 
expressed sorrow for the disturbance, 
and ordered Capt. McAffee to march. 
He laid down his sword and pistol to 
l)ull up at the heel a pair of Capt. Mc- 
Affee' s pumps he had put on, and then 
the captain, who was a powerful man, 
and Mrs. W., seized Fitz, and after a 
sharp struggle captured him. The place 
of his execution was at the intersection of 
Providence and Middletown roads, on 
the then outskirts of Chester. 

In 1817, John Craig, who was found 
guilty of the murder of Edward Hun- 
ter, Esq., of Newtown, was hung in 
the Widow Mcllvain's meadow near 
Munday's run, close to the old Post- 
road, now Morton Avenue. 

The first trial for nuirder at Chester, 
that I find recorded, was in 1718, when 
Hugh Pugh, millwright, and Lazarus 
Thomas, laborer, were convicted of the 
murder of Jonathan Hayes, committed 
in 1 7 15, three years previously. The 
circumstances are not narrated in the 
Colonial Records ; they were condemn- 
ed to be hung, as they say in their peti- 
tion for a new trial, dated May 8, 1 718, 
"on ffryday next," and as Gov. Keith 
refused to interfere, they were no doubt 
executed. Jonathan Hayes was a well 
known citizen, and a former Justice of 
the Peace of the County. 

Aug. 3, 1722. William Hill, Mary 
Woolvin and James Battin were prison- 
ers in Chester Gaol under sentence of 
death. The two first were reprieved for 
12 months, but Battin was directed to 
be executed and hung in irons in the 
most i)ublic place. 

On Nov. 27, I 752, before the Judges 
of the Supreme Court of the Province 
at Chester, Thomas Kelly was convict- 
ed of the muriler of I'^leanor Davis of 



Chester County, and was executed on 
Dec. 16, 1752. 

On Aug. 25, 1760, John Lewis was 
convicted at a Court of Oyer and Termi- 
ner held at Chester, of the murder of 
his wife Ann, and on Sep. 8, 1760, a 
warrant was issued for his execution by 
the Provincial Council. 

On Nov. 30, 1 764, at a Court held at 
Chester, before Wm. Allen, C. J., and 
Alex'r Stedman, Jane Ewingwas found 
guilty of the murder of her bastard male 
child on April 3, 1763, and sentenced 
to be hung ; a warrant for her execution 
on Saturday, Jan. 29, 1765, was issued. 

Thomas Vaughan and John Dowdle, 
were convicted at a court held at Ches- 
ter, Aug. 15, 1768, before the Justices 
of the Supreme Court, sitting as a Court 
of Oyer and Terminer, of the murder 
of Thomas Sharpe, and sentenced to be 
hung, and Council directed their ex- 
ecution to take place on Saturday, Sep. 
17, 1768. 

On June 11, 1770, before the same 
Judges, Matthew McMahon was tried 
and convicted of murdering John Mc- 
Clester of Middletown ; sentenced to 
death, and a warrant issued for his ex- 
ecution on Saturday, June 30, 1770. 

On Mar. 23, 1772, Patrick Kennedy, 
Thomas Fryer, Neal McCariher and 
James Dever, were tried, convicted 
and sentenced for a rape on Jane Wal- 
ker of Thornbury, before the Judges of 
the Supreme Court at Chester. The 
three last were reprieved during the Lt. 
Governor's (Richard Penn) pleasure. 
Kennedy was ordered to be executed 
on Saturday, May 2, 1772. 

On Saturday, Dec. 26, 1772, Hen- 
ry Phillips was executed at Chester for 
the murder of Richard Kelley. 

John Penn, Gov'r, by warrant direct- 
ed that James Willis, who was tried at 
Chester, found guilty and sentent ed 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



185 



to death for the murder of Daniel Culin, 
should be executed on Saturday, Sep. 

3°. 1775- 

On Saturday, May 20, 1780, Joseph 
Bates, convicted of burglary, was order- 
ed to be hung, at the usual place of ex- 
ecution at Chester, at 2 o'clock, P. M. 

Robert Smith and John Smith were 
found guilty of the murder of William 
Boyd, Collector of Public Taxes, in 
May, 1780, at a Court held at Chester, 
on the 26th of June, 1780, and ordered 
to be hung on Saturday, July i , at the 
usual place of execution. 

I have gathered the following recital 
of the occurrences of the accusation and 
execution of Elizabeth Wilson at Ches- 
ter, in the year 1786, for the murder 
of her two natural sons, twins. It ap- 
pears that Elizabeth, a young woman 
of a very reputable family in Chester 
County, was arrested, tried, convicted 
and sentenced to be hung, when her 
brother William presented to the Coun- 
cil (Dec. 6, 1785), a petition for a re- 
spite of thirty days, accompanied by a 
confession of Elizabeth, saying that he 
believed his sister was innocent, and 
that if he had time he could prove it. 
The Council ordered that the warrant 
for her execution on the next day be 
revoked, and that another be issued di- 
recting her execution on Jan. 3, 1786, 
(14 C. E., 591.) Among the papers 
of a distinguished officer of the govern- 
ment of this State, long since deceased, 
I find the touching sequel to this tragic 
story. He says : — 

" She said visited her when 

she lived in Philadelphia ; that, under 
a promise of marriage, he seduced 
her, and was the father of her twins, 
for the murder of whom she was con- 
demned ; that, when the children were 
six weeks old, he came to see her at the 
house she boarded, in Chester County, 



and persuaded her to take a walk with 
him, saying he intended to put the 
children out to nurse ; that, when they 
got into the woods, he took them from 
her, and laying them on the ground, 
the inhuman monster put his feet on 
their breasts, crushing them to death. 
He then threatened to murder her if 
she ever mentioned a word about what 
he had done ; bid her go home, and 
tell the people she lodged with that he 
had taken the children to Jersey to 
nurse, which the dread she was under 
— fear of his murdering her — made her 
comply with ; that she would at the 
expense of her life, have endeavored to 
save the children, but she had no sus- 
picion of his diabolical intention until 
it was too late to save them. The 
bodies of the children were found a few 
days afterwards by some dogs, which 
led to the discovery of the murder. 
Council, immediately upon the peti- 
tion being read, agreed to a respite for 
thirty days, and young Wilson set off, 
the same day, for Jersey. He there 
found the man, who declared he never 
knew his sister, and said he had not been 
in Philadelphia for two years. Wilson, 
after making some inquiries, rode back 
to his sister, and getting further infor- 
mation from her, went again into Jer- 
sey. He found a person who could 

prove had been in Philadelphia 

and lodged in the house with her, and 
was in expectation of obtaining further 
proof against him, whe*i he was taken 
sick. Finding the time draw near, sick 
as he was, he set off for home in order 
to get a further respite. It was late 
morning when he reached Chester, 
and, to his great surprise, he was told 
that the time granted her was out that 
day — he thought it was not until the 
next — and the Sheriff was preparing for 
her execution. Wilson was verv un- 



I SI) 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



well, having suffered much both in body 
and in mind. He, however, galloped 
to Philadelphia as fast as possible. Un- 
fortunately, he went to the President's, 
where, notwithstanding all his entrea- 
ties, it was sometime before he could 
get to see him, and when he did he 
staid, endeavoring to persuade the 
Doctor to give him a line to the Sheriff, 
which the former, thinking it impro- 
per, refused, and directed him to me. 
I was just leaving the Council chamber 
when he came, all the other members 
but one having gone. I immediately 
wrote, ' Do not execute Wilson until 
you hear further from the Council,' and 
directed it to the Sheriff. I well knew 
the Board intended to grant a further 
respite, but had there been a doubt | 
with me, I should have written to defer 
the execution — putting off for a day 
could be of no consequence. Wilson set 
off the moment I gave him the paper, 
carrying it in his hand ; he rode down 
in an hour and a quarter, a distance of 
fifteen miles, and the road at the time 
excessively bad. His sister had been 
turned off about ten minutes. What 
a dreadful sight for an affectionate 
brother ! They immediately cut her 
down, but although every means was 
used, they could not bring her to life. 
She persisted in her former story to the 
last moment of her life, which she re- 
signed with great fortitude, being per- 
fectly calm and composed. The only 
thing she found to regret was the 
trouble she had given her poor sick 
brother, and the pain he must suffer 
on her account. Just before the cart 
drew away she looked attentively to- 
ward Philadelphia, to see if her brother 
was in sight. For my own part, I firm- 
ly believed her innocent, for to me it 
appeared highly improbable that a 
mother, after suckling her children for 



six weeks could murder them. The 
next day when Council met and we 
heard of the execution, it gave uneasi- 
ness to many of the members, all of 
whom were against her being executed, 
at least until her brother had full time 
to make his inquiries ; and I am sure, 
if he had not been successful, there was 
a large majority for pardoning her. It 
is strange, considering the chances this 
unfortunate girl had, that her life w^as 
not saved. It was extraordinary that 
none of the members of Council, the 
Secretary or his deputy, should not 
have recollected the time granted was 
expired ; that herself, the clergymen 
that attended her, none of her fam- 
ily nor friends should have applied 
before, or that the Sheriff, who was a 
very good man, should not have called 
or sent to Council before he execut- 
ed her; and lastly, that her brother, 
who knew Council was sitting at the 
State House, should pass there and 
go to the President. Had he stopped 
at the State House, she would have 
been saved. He expected, if he stopped 
at Council, there would be some time 
taken up in debate, and that the Presi- 
dent would immediately have given 
him a letter to the Sheriff. I under- 
stood afterwards, that he soon followed 
his sister to her grave. 

" Perhaps the punishment of death 
is too great for an unmarried woman 
who destroys her child ; they are gener- 
ally led to it from a fear of being ex- 
posed. It is, to be sure, a shocking 
crime. If confinement for life or a term 
of years, at the discretion of the court, 
was the punishment, more would be 
convicted, and it would tend to put a 
stop to the crime. W^hile death is the 
punishment, a jury will seldom find a 
verdict against them. As death is the 
imnishment of the mother, what punish- 



HISTORY OF CIIESTEK. 



187 



ment is too severe for the villain who 
seduces and afterwards abandons the 
wretched mother?" 

Robert Wilson Avas ordered to be 
executed at Chester, Feb. ii, 1786. 

Warrants for the execution of John 
McDonough and Richard Shirtliffe, 
convicted severally of rape, at Ches- 
ter, were ordered to be issued by Coun- 
cil, June 5, 1786, but a reprieve or- 
dered to be granted to Shirtliffe, until 
further order, but the Sheriff be di- 
rected not to make it known to him 
until he be taken under the gallows. 

One night, in the fall of 1824, the 
residence of Mary Warner, in Upper 
Darby, was visited by three burglars. 
The family consisted of Mrs. W., Wil- 
liam Bonsall and his wife, and al- 
though Bonsall was sick in bed, one of 
the robbers stabbed him in the stomach, 
causing his immediate death. The 
desperadoes were arrested and tried 
at Chester, in October, before Judge 
Isaac Darlington, and his Associates, 
Hugh Lloyd and John Pearce; and 
Michael Monroe alias James Welling- 
ton, was convicted of murder in the 
first degree, Washington Labbe, of 
murder in the second degree, and 
Abraham Buys was acquitted. Wel- 
lington was defended by Benjamin 
Tilghman, and his address to the jury 
was one of the ablest appeals ever 
made in the old Court House, at Ches- 
ter. The jury rendered their verdict 
on Sunday morning. So great was 
the prejudice against Wellington that 
many were disposed to criticise Mr. 
Tilghman severely for having appeared 
in his defence. 

The Upland Unio?i gives the follow- 
ing account of 'the execution of Wel- 
lington : "On Friday morning, Dec. 
17, 1824, Michael Monroe alias ]dime?, 
Wellington, was executed. At an 



early hour the Borough of Chester was 
crowded with strangers. At 11 o'clock 
he was conducted from the jail to the 
place of execution, a distance of one 
and a half miles, accompanied by the 
Sheriff and all of the police officers of 
the county. He was attended by 
Revs. John Woolson, William Pal- 
mer, R. U. Morgan and John Smith. 
At half-past eleven o'clock, when the 
procession reached the gallows, the 
Rev. William Palmer delivered a so- 
lemn and appropriate prayer, after 
which he was followed by Rev. John 
Woolson. The prisoner ascended the 
scaffold about half-past twelve o'clock, 
and there addressed the spectators in 
the following words, which were spoken 
with firmness that astonished all who 
were present : 

' I have heard it said that no inno- 
cent man was ever executed in this 
county, but it will lose that honor to- 
day. ' 

After he had concluded the above 
sentence, he sang a hymn with the 
greatest ease and composure of mind. 
He then told the Sheriff, that he had 
no more to say. It wanted seventeen 
minutes of one when the drop fell, and 
the prisoner was no more. An au- 
topsy of Wellington's body was made 
the same evening by Dr. William 
Gray, Ellis Harlan, and other phy- 
sicians, in what was then known as 
the old pole-well house on Third Street, 
below Franklin, which, modernized, 
is still standing." 

There ought to be many incidents 
connected with Revolutionary times, 
occurring in Chester and its vicinity, 
but very few have been handed down 
to our day ; these have, or will here- 
after appear in the family sketches. 
One more incident from our county 
historian, is all I have collected re- 



188 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



lating to Chester and tlic Rc\olutii)n : 
The crew of the brigantine " Holker," 
which was "to sail as a i)rivateer," 
appears to have been enUsted at Ches- 
ter, by Captain Davis Bevan, who 
probably commanded the vessel. Most 
of the enlistments were made in the 
month of July, 1779, as appears by a 
receipt book of the Captain's, now in 
possession of the Delaware County In- 
stitute of Science. The bounty paid 
by Captain Bevan for a single cruise, 
was from $50 to ^100 ; probably Con- 
tinental money. Dr. Smith does not 
give a muster roll of the men enlisted. 

Oct. 17, 1779, by request of Joseph 
Reed, President, a detachment of 20 
men of the First City Troop of Phila- 
delphia was detailed to escort Mons. 
Girard to Chester. 

In the II Colonial Records, 729, 
Minutes of the Supreme Executive 
Council, of March 29, 1779, is this 
entry: "A certific<ite of the election 
of Chief Burgess, Burgesses and Con- 
stables of the Borrough of Chester being 
presented, was read, by which it ap- 
pears that David Cowpland, Esq., 
was duly elected Chief Burgess ; Wil- 
liam Evans, Robert Furgeson, and 
William Kerlin, Esq'rs, Burgesses, 
and John Shanlan, High Constable ; 
and David Cowpland appeared in 
Council and took the affirmation re- 
quired by the Constitution, to qualify 
him for said office of Chief Burgess." 

On Aug. I, 1779, Thomas Levis 
and John Hannum, Agents, &c., gave 
public notice that they would, on 
Saturday, the 4th day of Sept. next, 
sell at Public Vendue, at the Court 
House in Chester, the estate of Joseph 
Galloway, Nathaniel Vernon, Gideon 
Vernon, David Dawson, Richard Swa- 
nick, William Maddock, Alexander 
liartram, Curtis Lewis, Philip Mar- 



cliiiiton and Joshua Proctor, latcofthe 
County of Chester, attaintctl Traitors 
to the United Colonics. 

By Act of Assembly of the 6th of 
Oct. 1779, the estates of Nathaniel 
Vernon, late of Chester County, Es- 
quire, were vested in his four sons. 
Law Book I, 293. 

Alexander Bartram, above mention- 
ed, married a great-grand-aunt of mine, 
Jane Marlin, who was in consequence 
disowned by the Society of Friends, 
of which she was a member, as appears 
in the records of the Arch Street 
Monthly Meeting of Friends at Phila- 
delphia, as follows: " 7 mo. 31, 1767, 
Jane Bartram, (late Martin,) hath been 
married by a Priest and refuses to make 
any acknowledgement ;" and again, on 
"8 mo. 28, 1767, Jane Bartram, late 
Martin, disowned. ' ' Her husband was 
a merchant in Philadelphia, having 
much properly there that was also con- 
fiscated and sold. His property in 
Chester County consisted of 90 acres 
of land, known as the ''Fox Chase.'' 
He was a Scotchman by birth, and kept 
a dry goods store in Market Street, 
next door to the Indian King Tavern; 
advertisements will be seen in \\\^ Penn- 
sylvania Chronicle, of May 23, 1768, 
and Oct. 23, 1769, relating to his busi- 
ness. In the Pennsylvania Packet, of 
Aug. 3, 1772, will be found the follow- 
ing local item : " Last Wednesday eve- 
ning at 8 o'clock, the following melan- 
choly accident happened in Front 
Street, Southwark, to Mrs. Eleanor 
Bartram, an old gentlewoman, mother 
to Messrs. Alexander and George Bar- 
tram, merchants of this city, as she was 
standing at her own gate for the bene- 
fit of the air : A worthless fellow named 
Philip Hines, who lived opposite to 
her, ran out of his house with a broad- 
axe in his hand, swearing he would 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



189 



kill the first person he saw, and di- 
rectly came across the street and struck 
Mrs. Bartram a violent blow on the 
head with the pole of the weapon, 
which knocked her down in a gore of 
blood, so that her life is greatly de- 
spaired of. The villain immediately 
fled, but was taken and secured." 

Alexander Bartram took part with 
the British during the Revolution, and 
left the United Colonies with the Eng- 
lish army. By an order of Council, 
he was declared a Traitor, and his es- 
tates confiscated. He died in Nova 
Scotia. His widow retired to New- 
town, Bucks Coujity, where she died 
in 1816 ; her will is on record in that 
county. She had no children, and 
divided her estate among her relatives, 
including my father and my aunt Ann 
Crosby Smith, (late Martin,) widow 
of Joseph W. Smith, deceased, whom 
she still survives. She was born at her 
grandfather's, the late Judge John 
Crosby, at Ridley Creek quarries, April 
II, 1799, and resides with her only 
son, William Martin Smith, in Phila- 
delphia. 

George Bartram, the brother of the 
above Alexander, was a Whig, and a 
Patriot. In Hazard's Register, for 
July, 1830, p. 9, it is set forth, that, 
"When the British came to Philadel- 
phia, George Bartram, a merchant, a 
native of Scotland, was compelled with 
several others to go to Lancaster for 
safety. He dined out with a party of 
Whigs, and took cold, which caused his 
death in his forty-third year, on the 24th 
of April, 1777, and was buried in front 
of the Episcopal Churi'h ; a neat slab 
on the pavement marks the spot where 
his remains are deposited." He mar- 
ried Ann Bartram, a daughter of John 
Bartram, the celebrated American Bo- 
tanist ; and his second wife, Ann, the 



daughter of Benjamin and Ann Mend- 
enhall, of Concord, in Chester (now 
Delaware) County, Pennsylvania. She 
was born 6 mo. 24, 1741. They had 
issue, one son, George Bartram. 

The year 1780, is memorable, in O 
the Annals of Pennsylvania, as the / 
year in which an Act was passed by ; 
the Assembly for the gradual abolition '. 
of slavery in this Commonwealth. A 
registry was made of all slaves in the , 

State in accordance with the require ' 

ments of law, by which it is shown 
that in Chester Township there were at 
that time, 16 slaves for life, and only 
one for a term of years. From one of 
the returns, Indians appear to have 
been held as slaves ; by what right is 
not stated, but probably by some order 
or sentence of the Court. A farmer 
in East Nottingham, returns "An In- 
dian girl named Sarah, as a slave for 
life ; also an Indian man servant un- 
til he arrives at the age of thirty-one 
years." Smith's History, 334, &:c. 

The Indian slaves appear to have 
been imported from Carolina and 
other places, i Laws of Pa., 62. 

The following taken from the Penn- 
sylvania Packet, cannot fail to be of 
interest in these days of perfect free- 
dom : ' ' Ranaway on the 30th of June, 

1779, from Carlin, Innkeeper, 

in Chester, a Negro Man, named Ben, 
about 23 years of age, but looks older. 
He is about 5 feet 2 inches high, broad 
and well set, is lame of one leg, having 
been shot in the back leader makes 
him weak in the heel, drops the toes 
when he lifts that foot, and wags his 
body much when he walks; his voice 
is hollow, and his clothes much worn. 
Whoever takes up said negro and de- 
livers him to said Carlin, in Chester, 
shall have eight dollars reward, and 
reasonable charges." The name Car- 



190 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



lin ought to be Kerlin, no doubt. J>en 
appears to have been discovered and 
returned to his master, as he was sold, 
and ran away again. 

There ai)pears to have been at this 
time another class of servants, as the fol- 
lowing notice in the Packet o{ ]\.\\y 12, 
1773, will show: "Just arrived in the 
ship 'Betsey,' from Newry, and now 
lying off Market Street wharf, Phila- 
delphia, A Number of Redemption- 
ERS and Servants, whose times are to 
be disposed of by Joseph Carson, or 
the Captain on board." 

Soul Drivers ! So were denomi- 
nated a certain set of men that used 
to drive Redemptioners through the 
country and dispose of them to the 
farmers. They generally purchased 
them in lots of fifty or more, of Cap- 
tains of ships to whom the Redemp- 
tioners were bound for three years' ser- 
vice, in payment of their passage over 
from Europe. But some of them, as 
McCullough, who used to drive in 
Chester County, would go themselves 
to Europe, collect a drove, bring them- 
to the Province, and retail them here 
upon the best terms they could pro- 
cure, without the intervention of the 
wholesale dealer. The trade was pretty 
brisk for awhile, but was at length 
broken up by the numbers that ran 
away from the drivers. The last of 
the ignominious set that followed, dis- 
appeared about the year 1785. A 
story is told of McCullough having 
been tricked by one of his herd. The 
fellow by a little management, con- 
trived to be the last of the flock that 
was unsold, and travelled about with 
his master without companions. One 
night they lodged at a tavern, and in 
the morning the young fellow, who 
was an Irishman, arose early, sold his 
master lo the landlord, pocketed the 



money and marched off. Previously, 
however, to his going, he used the 
precaution to tell the purchaser that 
his servant, although tolerably clever 
in other respects, was rather saucy 
and a little given to lying. That he 
had been even presumptions enough 
at times to endeavor to pass for mas- 
ter, and that he might possibly re- 
present himself as such to him. By 
the time mine host was undeceived, 
the son of Erin had gained such a 
start as rendered pursuit hopeless. 

These Redemptioners were gene- 
rally, and always properly sold in 
their presence by a tripartite agree- 
men t . See Lewis' Sketches of the His- 
tory of Chester County, 1824. 

Joseph Jackson Lewis, Esq., of the 
Chester County Bar, who is still living, 
is the author of the Sketches just re- 
ferred to. When he wrote them, he 
was a teacher in the West Chester Ac- 
ademy, and studying law. They were 
written for, and first appeared in the 
Village Record of West Chester, then 
published by Charles Miner, whose 
daughter Mr, Lewis subsequently mar- 
ried. The Sketches were copied into 
Poiilson' s Philadelphia Advertiser, in 
1824. Joseph J. is a son of Enoch 
Lewis, the celebrated Mathemati- 
cian. 

The author of the ''Historical Col- 
lections of Chester County,'' recently 
published in the American Republican, 
of West Chester, is J. Smith Futhey, 
Esq., also a member of the Chester 
County Bar. He writes the articles, 
for he has not yet finished his valuable 
contributions, as a relaxation from the 
labors of his profession. Some of the 
Sketches are, however, written by Gil- 
bert Cope, a well known Antiquarian 
of Chester County. In No. 24 it is 
stated, that his contributions will be 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



191 



signed with his initials, G. C, and 
Mr. Futhey's with his, J. S. F. 

The removal of the Court from Up- 
land was ordered in 1680, and Haz- 
ard states that " Upland, where the 
Sessions of the Court had hitherto 
been held, being at the lower end of the 
county, they resolved for the greater 
ease of the people, for the future, to 
sit and meet at the town of Kinsesse, 
on the Schuylkill. This removal was 
undoubtedly, however, only tempo- 
rary, and a part of the system of ac- 
commodation of that time, that jus- 
tice should be had within convenient 
distance of all." 

For one hundred years after this 
episode, up to the year 1780, Chester 
remained quietly the Seat of Justice of 
Chester County, notwithstanding its 
position, but during that year an ef- 
fort was made to have the county seat 
removed to a more central locality, 
which resulted in the Act of Assembly 
of Mar. 20, 1780, entitled "An Act to 
enable William Clingan, Thomas Bull, 
John Kinkead, Roger Kirk, John Sel- 
lers, John Wilson and Joseph Davis to 
build a new Court House and prison 
in the County of Chester, and to sell 
the old Court House in the borough 
of Chester." These gentlemen were 
authorized to locate the County Seat 
just wherever they pleased ; but for 
some reason, now unknown, the mat- 
ter rested until 1784. 

On the 22d of March, 1784, a sup- 
plement was obtained to the Act of 
March 20, 1780, authorizing John 
Hannum, Isaac Taylor, and John 
Jacobs, or any two of them to carry 
the Act into effect. These three Com- 
missioners were all earnest removalists, 
and went to work at once to accom- 
plish their purpose. They were re- 
stricted by the sui)plement from erect- 



ing the county buildings at a greater 
distance than one and a half miles 
from the old Turk's Head Tavern, in 
Goshen Township, so they contracted, 
in the summer of 1784, for a site near 
the Turk's Head, where the Court 
House now stands, and commenced 
the buildings, a Court House and a 
Prison, adjacent to each other and con- 
nected by the jail yard. While these 
proceedings were going on at the 
Turk's Head, the present West Ches- 
ter, the people of Chester, who were 
naturally opposed to the removal of 
the Seat of Justice from their town, 
were not idle to try and prevent it. 
Taking advantage of the winter season 
when the work on the new county 
buildings was suspended, and the Le- 
gislature in session, they obtained the 
passage of the Act of March 20, 1785, 
to suspend the supplement. But not 
being entirely satisfied with their vic- 
tory, the Chester folks, fearing the 
passage of another supplement, de- 
termined to make assurance doubly 
sure, and resolved to demolish the 
erections already partially made at the 
Turk's Head. Accordingly a strong 
force was assembled, armed and equip- 
ped, and provided with one field 
piece, the whole being placed under 
the command of Major John Harper, 
marched for the purpose of destroying 
the works of the enemy in Goshen. A 
few days before the expedition left 
Chester, spies had informed the lead- 
ers at the Turk's Head of the intended 
raid, they immediately made their 
preparations to repel the invaders. 
Col. Hannum took command of the 
whole defending force. Col. Taylor 
and Mr. Marshall soon collected to- 
gether quite a respectable body for 
defence. Grog and eatables were dis- 
tributed among the men, and they 



101 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



were then set to work to put the l)uild- 
ings in a state of defence. The win- 
dows of the Court House were boarded 
up on either side, and the space filled 
with stones, loop holes being left for 
the sharpshooters ; each man had his 
station assigned him ; Marshall and 
Taylor commanded in the upper story. 
Underwood and Patten the ground 
floor, Avhile Col. Hannum had direc- 
tion of the whole. All was thus ar- 
ranged for a stout resistance, when 
Major Harper's force arrived in sight, 
and took their position on Quaker 
Hill, which commanded the Court 
House, and made preparations to bat- 
ter down the unfinished walls with his 
artillery. A conference, however, 
took place between the adverse lead- 
ers, and an armistice was agreed upon ; 
the opposing forces soon fraternized, 
the Chester cannon was fired in the 
peaceful rejoicings which followed at 
the Turk's Head, which became the 
theatre of conviviality, all hands had 
a jolly time, and the Chester army 
marched home again, all quite mel- 
lowed by tlie refreshments furnished 
them by their hospitable hosts. How 
they were received at home is not 
stated. 

On the 1 8th of March, 1786, the 
suspending act was repealed by "an 
Act to repeal an Act, entitled an Act 
to suspend an Act of the General As- 
sembly of this Commonwealth, en- 
titled an Act, to enable William Clin- 
gan," &c. This settled the contro- 
versy. The new county buildings 
were finished in 1786, and the trans- 
fer of the county records and govern- 
ment to West Chester was peacefully 
consummated. 

No proceedings were ever instituted 
against Major Har])er, or any portion 
of his force, I he matter was allowed 



(luietly to drop as far as the violation 
of the law was concerned ; but the 
wags of the day, and of the Removal 
party, published many lampoons in 
doggerel rhyme. I copy from the 
Directory of West Chester, of 1857, 
the following written by Joseph Hick- 
man, on the subject, called : 

LAMENT OVER CHESTER'S MOTHER. 
Poor Chester'' s Mother^ s very sick ; 

Her breath is almost gone : 
Her children throng around her thick, 

And bitterly do mourn. 

Cries little 'Lisha""" the firsl born, — 

" What will become of I ? 
A little orphan, held in scorn — ■ 

If Mamma she slK)uId die. 
Not only I will be opprest : — 

I younger brothers have, 
Who cannot do without the breast, 

When Mamma's in her grave." 

And then poor helpless Billyf cries — 

" Oh ! how shall I be fed ? 
What shall I do, if Mamma dies ? — 

I cannot work for bread. 

These little hands have never wrought : 

" Oh ! how I am opprest ! 
For I have never yet done aught, 

But hang on Mamma's breast." 

Little Davis, J he comes ne.\t, — 

A puling, silly boy ; 
His countenance appears perplex'd, 

And destitute of joy. 

" How is our dear Mamma?" he cried : 

" Think you we can her save ? 
How is the wound that's in her side, 

Which cursed Hannum^ gave ?" 

* Elisha Price, a prominent and active o])- 
ponent of the removal of the county seal. 
Neither his particular history, nor his relation 
to the Seat of Justice is now known. 

f William Kerlin, one of the principal inn- 
keepers of Chester, and consequently a ve- 
hement opponent of the removal. 

X Davis Bevan, a retail merchant of (Jhes- 
ter, and an active partisan in this controversy. 

^ John Hannum, Chairman of the Com- 
mittee for effecting the removal, and the mas- 
ter spirit of the whole affair ; of course, he 
was exceedingly ubno.\ious to the |)eoi)lc of 
( hcstcr. 



HISTORY OF CIIESTEH. 



193 



Says little Ned,* — " Upon my word, 

Poor Mamma will be slain ; — 
Though cursed Hannum lost his sword,f 

He's got it back again. 

What shall I do if Mamma dies? 

What will become of Ned?" 
The tears came trickling from his eyes. 

And straight he took his bed. 
Then CaIey,J he came next in view, — 

His mouth was all awry ; 
Says he — " Oh ! what will Caley do, 

If Mamma dear should die ? 
She might have liv'd for many a year. 

And all her children fed. 
If Hannum hadn't poison'd her — 

Curse on his frizzled head !" 
Cries little John,^ the youngest son. 

Who just began to crawl — 
" If Mamma lives, I soon shall run ; 

If not, I soon shall fall. 

Oh ! may Jack Hannum quickly die — 

And die-in grievous pain ; — 
Be sent into eternity. 

That Mamma may remain : 

May all his projects fall, likewise,^ — 

That we may live again !" — 
Then every one roU'd up his eyes, 

And cried aloud, " Amen !" 

The first removal act authorized the 
sale of the old Court House and jail 
at Chester, upon completion of the 
new buildings erected for the use of 

* The reference here is either to Edward 
Vernon, or Edward Richards, but which is 
now uncertain. 

f The allusion here, is to the capture of 
Col. Hannum, by a party of British Light 
Horse, who surprised him one night in his 
bed, and took him a prisoner to Philadelphia. 

J Caleb Davis, who held the office of Pro- 
thonotary from 1777 to 1791, and who took a 
lively interest in the question of removal. 

^ Major John Harper, a Revolutionary 
officer who had recently commenced keeping 
a tavern in Chester ; of course he was opposed 
to the removal. Tradition says he commanded 
the belligerent forces that marched to destroy 
the unfinished buildings at the Turk's Head. 
He afterwards went to reside in West Ches- 
ter ; and was for some time landlord of the 
famous Turk's Head tavern. See Historical 
Sketches in West Chestei- Directory for 1857, 
written bv Dr. Dnrlinsjton. 



the county ; accordingly, March 8, 
1788, that property was sold and con- 
veyed to William Kerlin for ^415. 
Mr. Kerlin at that time owned and 
kept the tavern opposite the old Court 
House in Chester. 



XIX. 

On the 28th of Sept. 1789, an Act 
of Assembly was passed, authorizing a 
division of the County of Chester, and 
the formation of a part thereof into a 
new county, upon a petition of " the 
inhabitants of the Borrough of Ches- 
ter and the Southeastern part of the 
county." The petitioners to expedite 
matters, also contracted with William 
Kerlin for the purchase of the old 
Court House and Prison, to be used 
for the new county; and on the 3d 
of November following, Mr. Kerlin 
conveyed the property to Henry Hale 
Graham, Richard Reilly, Josiah Lewis, 
Edward Jones and Benjamin Bran- 
nin, for the sum of ^693. 35s. 8d., 
and they the same day executed a de- 
claration of trust. By the same act, 
John Sellers, Thomas Tucker and 
Charles Dilworth, or any two of them, 
were named Commissioners " to run 
and mark the line dividing the coun- 
ties of Chester and Delaware." 

The first election in Delaware coun- 
ty, was held on the second Tuesday in 
October, 1 789 ; and the first Court was 
held on Feb. 9,1790. At the election , 
Nicholas Fairlamb was elected Sheriff; 
Jonathan Vernon, Coroner, and John 
Pearson, Thomas Levis, Richard Hill 
Morris and George Pearce, Justices of 
the Peace ; and on Nov. 7, 1789, Hen- 
ry Hale Graham was appointed Presi- 
dent Judge of the Court of Common 
Pleas, &c. , for the county of Delaware, 



194 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



but he (lied before tlie first session of 
the Court. 

In The Independent Gazetteer, or the 
Chroniele of Freedom, published in 
Philadelphia, Jan. 2, 1788, on the first 
page, will be found a long advertise- 
ment of Greeshom, Johnson &: Co., of 
"The Philadelphia, Baltimore and 
Eastern Shore Line of Post Coach Car- 
riages. ' ' It states that carriages will 
set out in 4th street, nearly opposite 
the Old Indian Queen Tavern, during 
the winter, on Monday and Thursdays 
of every week, at 10 o'clock in the fore- 
noon, and arrive in Baltimore on Wed- 
nesdays and Saturdays in good season 
for dining. The passengers on their 
way from Philadelphia, will dine at the 
" Queen of France Inn," kept by Mr. 
John Jarvis, 22 miles from the city. In 
the issue of July 12, 1788, the notice 
is somewhat changed ; and the rates of 
fare are given thus : 

From Phila. to Chester, 15 miles, ^^o. 5s. od. 
Chester to Qu. France, 7 " o. 2s. 6cl. 
Q. of F. to Wilmington, 6 " o. 2s. 6d. 
Wil. to Christiana br., 10 " o. 3s. 4c]. 
Christiana br. to Elk, 12 " o. 4s. 2d. 

Elk to .Susquehanna, 16 " o. 7s. 6d. 



Phila. to Susque. br., 66 miles, £\. 5s. od. 
Susque. to Baltimore, 37 " gratis. 

The passengers sleep the first night at Chris- 
tiana bridge. 

At the heads of these announcements, 
is a picture of the " Post Coach Car- 
riages' ' of that day. They were similar 
in appearance to our army wagons of 
the present date ; namely, very large 
dearborns or market wagons, with 
round tops covered with canvas, with 
the driver seated at the front, his feet 
outside of the body of the wagon, rest- 
ing on a foot board ; the whole drawn 
by four horses. 

In the issue of the same journal of 
Feb. II, 1788, the following notice is 



given: "The pro])riel()rs of the Old 
Line of Stages, having united with the 
lines from New York to Philadelphia, 
and thence to Baltimore, will begin to 
run on Monday the i8th inst. The 
stages will leave New York and Balti- 
more Stage ofifice on 4th street, two 
doors from the Indian Queen, kept by 
Mr. James Thompson, at 6 o'clock on 
the mornings of Mondays, Wednesdays 
and Fridays, and will return again on 
Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays 
each week during the winter season." 
Among the names of the proprietors 
appears the name of William Kerlin, 
an old and well known Chester name. 
William Kerlin, his son, (I presume), 
used to live in the first house below 
Chester creek bridge, on the left-hand 
side of the old stage route to Baltimore. 
His old residence is not the first house 
below the bridge now, of course. He 
used to flood his meadow, then consist- 
ing of several acres, every winter, to cut 
ice from it when the water became 
frozen. It made a splendid skating 
place for the boys and girls, when I 
was a boy and went to school at Ches- 
ter. Many a happy hour I have passed 
there skating; no doubt there are 
plenty of men and women in Chester, 
who can say the same thing. 

In the month of April, 1789, Gene- 
ral Washington passed through Ches- 
ter, on his way to Philadelphia. My 
grandmother, then Eleanor Crosby, 
often spoke of seeing him on that 
occasion in company with her father, 
Judge Crosby. I have in my pos- 
session, in the hand-writing of my 
grandfather, Dr. Wm. Martin, the 
copy of an address made to the Presi- 
dent on his visit, which is as follows : 
" To his Excellency George Washing- 
ton, Esqr., President of the United 
States, Sir : The inhabitants of the 



IIISTORV OF OHESTEIJ. 



195 



town ot Chester, impressed with the 
liveliest sentiments of esteem and ven- 
eration for your Excellency's charac- 
ter, congratulate themselves upon this 
opportunity being afforded them to pay 
their respects to, and to assure you of the 
unfeigned joy that swells their bosoms, 
while they reflect that the united voices 
of millions have again called you from 
the bosom of domestic retirement to be 
once more the public guardian of the 
liberty, happiness and prosperity of 
United America. From this event they 
entertain the most pleasing expecta- 
tions of the future greatness of the 
Western world ; indeed they cannot 
but observe to your Excellency, that 
' the torpid resources of our country 
already discover signs of life and 
motion,' from the adoption of the 
Federal Constitution. Accept, sir, our 
fervent wishes for your welfare — may 
you be happy ; may a life spent in use- 
fulness be crowned with a serene old 
age ; and may your future reward be a 
habitation not built with hands, eternal 
in the Heavens." 

No doubt the Doctor delivered this 
address to the President. He was the 
foremost man of his day in Chester, 
and practised both Law and Medicine, 
and but for his early taking off, I have 
reason to think from his many writings, 
which are in manuscript in my posses- 
sion, and his extensive library and cor- 
respondence, that he bid fair to reach 
a prominent position in his country. 
The late widow of Major Anderson, 
used often to talk to me of my grand- 
father. It seemed to be a pleasant and 
favorite topic with her. She said "Dr. 
Martin was one of the handsomest men 
of the day." She spoke also of his 
dress — purple velvet small clothes, 
black silk stockings, pumps or shoes 
with large buckles, which are in the 



family yet, purple vest and coat, with 
"sugar-loaf," or pine apple shaped 
buttons, studded with brilliants, like 
the buckles of his shoes, and his hair 
worn in a queue, and powdered at 
times, with the cornered hat of that 
period. He may have looked very 
stylish in that day, but a man dressed 
so off the stage, would look peculiar at 
this time, to say the least of it. 

In a short essay on Joy, written by 
Dr. Martin, somewhat before the date 
above mentioned, in 1785, he states 
that "Dr. Ramsey, speaking of the first 
inauguration of the President, Washing- 
ton, says it was a moment of the most 
sublime political joy — which is one of 
the strongest emotions that the human 
mind has to contend with ; ' ' and gives in 
another portion of the essay this illus- 
tration of the effects of joy, viz : "The 
door-keeper of Congress died sudden- 
ly on hearing of the capture of Corn- 
wallis." 

On Sept. 2, 1790, a new Constitu- 
tion was adopted for the Common- 
wealth. Under its provisions. Justices 
of the Peace ceased to sit in the Courts 
as Associate Judges. And the Courts 
were re-organized with a President 
Judge, learned in the law, with two 
Associates, laymen ; whose duties are 
well told in an anecdote by an Asso- 
ciate Judge. He said: "I sat five 
years on the same bench, in the old 
Court House in Chester, without open- 
ing my mouth. One day, however, 
towards night, after listening to the 
details of a long and tedious trial, the 
President leaning over towards me, 
and putting his arm across my shoul- 
ders, asked me a question : ' Judge, ' 
said he, 'don't you think this bench 
is infernally hard ?' To this import- 
ant question, I replied: 'I thought it 
were!' And that's the only opinion 



196 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



I ever gave during my long judicial 
career. ■' 

In early times, the General Election 
for the whole county, was held at the 
( ouit I louse in Chester. l'"-\eryl)ody, 
men, women and (hildrcn, irom all 
parts of the county, flocked into town, 
in all kinds of vehicles, some also on 
horseback, and others on foot. It was 
a grand holiday. Booths for the sale 
of eatables of all kinds, were erected 
about the streets in every available 
space, and the drinkables were not 
forgotten. The quarries at Crum and 
Ridley Creeks, which furnished the 
stone for the Delaware Breakwater, 
near Cape Henlopen, gave employ- 
ment in those days, to large numbers 
of Irishmen. Most of these men were 
naturalized and went to Chester to 
vote, and see the fun. Party feeling 
ran high, and the day seldom passed 
without a furious fight between the 
rival factions of Irishmen. Sometimes 
the quarrymen attacked the people of 
the town, but were always driven out 
of the place, although the citizens had 
on' several occasions to call out the 
militia to drive the mob out of town. 
I remember an occasion in which a 
company, commanded by Capt. John 
K. Zeilin, was called out to suppress 
an election riot, which began by an 
attack of the quarrymen on Theodoric 
Porter, in John O. Deshong's store. 

During the year 1794, the (General 
Government was obliged to raise a 
militia force to quell a rebellion in the 
western i)art of Pennsylvania, known as 
the "Whiskey Insurrection." Ches- 
ter sent a company of infantry to the 
scene of the disturbance ; some ac- 
counts say it was a company of cavalry. 
It was at all events under the command 
of William Graham, Esq., a member 
of the bar, and a son of Henry Hale 



Graham. It is said that ('apt. Gra- 
ham lost the use of his voice by ex- 
posure during this campaign, and not 
by exposure on Chester Island, as has 
been sometimes stated. 

Chester Island (onsists of about 70 
acres, 1) ing opjiosite that town, in the 
Delaware River ; 25 acres of it was 
once banked in, but is now partially 
covered with water. It is the great 
place for rail shooting in season, and 
is now owned by the heirs of Geo. Wil- 
son, deceased, and my friend, Frank 
Field, well-known in Chester, and who 
is the descendant of an old Delaware 
County family. 

" Almighty Jehovah 

Descend now and fill 
Our hearts with thy glory, 

Our hearts with good will, 
Preside at our meeting, 

Assist us to find 
True pleasure in teaching 

Good will to mankind." 

I have in my library, a pamphlet 
entitled the " By-Laws of Lodge No. 
69, held in the Borough of Chester, 
Delaware County, Pennsylvania, print- 
ed by Joseph M. G. Lescure, at the 
office of the Upland Union, 1825," 
from which I extract the following in- 
formation, of interest to my Masonic 
brethren, viz. 

"List of members of Lodge No. 69, 
A. Y. M., admitted from the date of 
the warrant, June 24, 1796, to this 
time," being Jan. i, 1825. The war- 
rant is signed by the then Grand Offi- 
cers of the Grand Lodge of Pennsyl- 
vania, William Moore Smith, G. M. ; 
Gavin Hamilton, D. G. M. ; Thomas 
Town, S. G. W. ; John Poor, J. G. 
W. ; Thomas Armstrong, G. S. ; John 
J. McEllwee, G. T. ; and is directed 
to William Martin, Worshipful Mas- 
frr; James Bernard, Senior Warden ; 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



197 



William Y^wwitW, Jiiuior Warden ; John 
Odenheimer, M. M. ; Mathias Kerlin, 
M. M. ; William Hill, P. M. ; Robert 
Smith, M. M., admitted Sep. 27, 1796. 



Na)iics. 
Preston Eyre, M. M., 
Daniel Harmony, M. M., 
Jacob D. Barker, " 
Peter Stirable, " 

James Shaw, " 

Thomas Vernon, " 

•'■Abraham Kerlin, " 
William Peirce, " 

John Wood, " 

Joseph Hall, " ■ 

*John Saffer, " 

Seth Levis, " 

James Sharpless, " 

George McNeally, " 
Edward Engle, " 

William Ford, 
William Anderson, P. M., 
John Entriss, M. M., 
Robert Hall, 

Robert McNeally, M. M., 
Joseph Harrison, " 
John Thompson, " 
James Craig, " 

Lewis Cornog, " 

Aaron Moreton, " 

William Haughy, 
Evan Peters, " 

William Witeman, F. C, 
Benjamin Neidy, M. M., 
George Bail, " 

William Willis, 
George Gill, " 

Nathaniel Sykes, " 
Jona. Y. Haight, " 
Joseph T. Heath, " adm 
*John Rowan, " 

Abijah Price, " 

;i;Joseph Engle, P. M., admitted 
Samuel Pennell, M. M., 
Jona. Salyards, " 

Abraham Philips, " 
Thos. Coburn, Jr., " 
Enoch Welsh, " 

James M. Walker, F. C, 
John Sealah, M. M., 
William Robinson, M. M 
Michael Oburn, " 

Charles Farren, F. C, 
James Merryhew, M. M., 
*Samuel HoofF, " 

Job Vernon, ' 

Abraham Palmer, " 
John H. Cheney, " 
Joseph Merryhew, " 
William Miller, 
, William Wright, 
John Attmore, " 

Henry Wood, " 

Robert Pennell, 



Sept. 



1796. 



Nov. 29, 
Jan. 31, 
Feb. 22, 



Feb. 28, 
Mar. 14, 



Mar. 28, 
Apr. 25, 



May 30, 



June 27, 




Aug. 29, 


" 


Oct. 31, 


" 


Jan. 30, 


1798 


Feb. 28, 




May 29, 


« 


June 26, 


" 


Aug. 28, 





Dec. 25, 


" 


Feb. 26, 


1799 


Mar. 26, 




Nov. 26, 


'< 


Dec. 31, 


" 


Jan. 28, 


i8do 


May 27, 


" 


July 29, 


" 


Sept. 28, 


" 


Oct. 8, 


" 


Feb'y 2, 


l8oi 


Sept. s, 


" 


Aug. 8, 




Feb. 6, 


1802 


Oct. 2, 


" 


Nov. 6, 




Dec. 6, 


1806 



Jas. Mendenhall, M. M., . 
Joseph Holston,F. C, 
William Baker, M. M., . 
Francis Patterson, M. M., 
Joseph T. John, P. M., 
Samuel Iddings, M. M., 
William Moore, " 
Robert Watton, " 
Robert Given, " 

David Stewart, " 
John Makie, P. M., 
John Dermont, M. M., . 
Daniel MacAllister, M. M., 
Samuel Blanchard, " 
William Fell, " . 

Cornelius Mackey, " 
Septimus Flounders, " 
George Warner, " 

John Young, " 

Thomas Fell, " . 

Jonas P. Fairlamb, '' 
John Pearl, 
Charles Cooper, " 

Robert Davidson, " 
Thomas Ottey, " 

William Geary, " 

*Job H. Terrill, P. M., 
Terrence Campbell, M. M., 
John Barber, " 

N. Wilkinson, 
James Cummings, " 

David Cummings, " 

Israel Thomas, " 

Aaron Wood, " 

Robert Patterson, " 

Isaac White, E. A., " 
*John Caldwell, Jr., M. M., 
Joseph Neefe, " 

James Nelson, " 

Isaac Barton, " 

Joseph Weaver, Jr. , " 
*John Martin, " 

John Harland, " 

Mark Winter, " 

*John Thomson, " 

Joseph Piper, P. M., admitted 
Joseph Bowen, M. M., " 
Nathaniel Newlin, M. M., 
Benjamin Kirk, " adi 

George Irwin, " 

Nehemiah Baker. " 
Wm. Robinson, " 

George Spear, " 

*Thomas D. Barnard, M. M., 
*Jona. P. Worrall, 
Daniel Howe, E. A., 
*M. Richards Sayres, M. M., 
George Caldwell, " 

*John Welch, 
George Elkins, " 

John J. Richards, P. M., 
*MosesCo.\-, M. M., . 
*Joseph Black, " 
Dr. EUis C. Harland, M. M., 
Jesse Haimer, 
*George Hawkins, " 

Joshua A. I'earson, " 



Dec. 6, 1806. 
Mar. 7, 1807. 
Apl. 4, " 
June 6, " 
Sept. 12, " 

Mar. 5, 1808. 
June 4, " 
July 2, " 

July 30, " 
Oct. 29, " 
Dec. 31, " 
Jan. 28, 1809. 

Aug. 9, " 

" 19. " 
Nov. 18, " 
Dec. 16, " 
Dec. 26, " 
Feb. 17, 1810, 
June 16, " 
Feb'y 2, 1811. 
Aug. 3. " 



Aug. 20, 1812. 
Aug. 3, " 
Feb. 13, 1813- 

Apl. 10, " 



May 10, 


" 


Mar. 10, 


1814. 


July 25, 


" 


Apl. 22, 


1815. 


July 15, 




Sept. 16, 


" 


Dec. 20, 


1816. 


Jan. II. 


1817 


Mar 29, 


" 


Apl. 26, 





Aug, 23, 


" 


Oct. iS, 


" 


Dec. 20, 


',' 


Jan. 17, 


iSi's 


Feb. 14, 


" 


Apl. 18. 




June 13, 




Aug. 15, 


;; 


Jan. 9, 


1819 


Feb. 6, 


" 


Mar. 6, 


" 


Apl. 3. 


" 


June s. 




Oct. 2, 


" 


Dec. 25. 




July 7, 


1S20 


Sept. 16, 





198 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



♦Robert Beale, Esq., M. U., 
*Thomas N. Barker, E. A., 
*Richard Dutton, M. M., 
*Archibald T. Dick, Esq., P. M. 
*George R. Grantham, M. M., . 
*John P. Crosb>', " 

William Tussey, " 

John Irwin, " 

Edward Richards, Esq., " 
Joseph Thatcher, " 

*John J. Thurlow, " 

*George W. Bartram, P. M., . 
*Francis Murphy, M. M., 
Charles Attmore, " 
Jas. Brattin, Esq., " 
*William Corkey, " 
*Zedekiah W. Flower, M. M., 
*OIiver Stevenson, " 

*John Taylor, " 

*Henry G. Kerlin, " 

*Samuel R. Lamplugh, " 
*William Martin, Esq., " 
*Samuel Shaw, Jr., " 

*Dr. Samuel Anderson, ■ " 
*Rev. R. U. Morgan, " 
*John Cochran, " 

*Jame.s Sloan, " 



Dec. i6, 1820. 



Jan. 13, 1821. 
Feb. 10, " 
Sept. 8, '■■ 
Mar. 30, 1822. 

June 28, " 

July 27, " 
Nov. 23, " 

Dec. 21, " 
Feb. 22, 1823. 
Mar. 22, " 
Oct. j8, " 
Nov. IS, " 
Feb. 7, 
Apl. 10, 
June 5, 
Oct. 30, 



1824. 



Nov. 5, 
Dec. 4, 



Present ofificers of the Lodge, No. 
69 : Archibald T. Dick, Esq., IVor- 
shipful Master ; William Martin, Esq., 
Se?iior Warden; Zedekiah W. Flower, 
Junior Warden; George W. Bartram, 
'^%Q^. , Secretary ; Joseph Black, Trea- 
surer. 

Those marked thus * were living 
members of the Lodge, at the time of 
the printing of the by-laws in 1825. 
It will be observed, that at that date 
the title of Esquire, was only given to 
Judges of the Courts, lawyers and Jus- 
tices of the Peace, or to those occupy- 
ing official positions in the State. I 
give also a list of members initiated in 
No. 69, after the publication of the 
pamphlet in 1825 : 



Joseph M. G. Lescure, 
John Martin, carpenter, 
Albert G. Pearson, 
Jacob Effinger, 
Joseph Hall, 
— ^ohn Hinkson, 
John Shaw, 
Joseph Baker, 
Ezekiel Norman, 
James O'Hara, 
James F>ans, 
Joseph Rhoads, 



Isaac T. Thomas, 
Samuel Hale, 
John K. Zeilin, 
Benjamin H. L. Hulings, 
Jehu Broomhall, 
Thomas Williamson, 
John Hart, 
Thomas Baker, 
Isaac Briggs, 
John Schofield, 
James Holms, 
HuKhMcI,ai,Kl.ii„, 



Oswald Patchell, Isaac S. Williams, 

William Fo.\, William Garthwait, 

Melville Thomas Hard, Alexander M. Wright, 
Francis Graham, Thomas McKinney, 

Joseph P. Williams. 

The Lodge surrendered its charter 
in 1836. Its last officers were, Wil- 
liam Martin, Esq., W. M. ; Isaac S. 
Williams, S. W. ; and Francis Gra- 
ham, J. W. In the month of Dec, 
1864, I sent to the Grand Lodge the 
old Minute Book of No. 69, and re- 
ceived a receipt, and transcript of the 
proceedings taken thereon by the Grand 
Lodge. It seems to have been the cus- 
tom in old times to have an Annual 
Address delivered before the members 
of the Lodge on St. John's day, in 
December. I have three manuscript 
addresses, one bearing date Dec. 27, 
1797, all in the handwriting of Dr. 
William Martin, and all, no doubt, 
spoken by him before the Lodge. 

" When the Senior Warden standing in the west, 
Calls us from our Labors to partake of rest, 

We unite, while he recites 

The duties of a Mason. 
On the Level meet, on the Square we part, 

Repeats each worthy Brother, 
This rule in view, — we thus renew, 

Our friendship for each other." 

The projectors of Chester Lodge No. 
236, of Ancient York Masons, first 
endeavored to get the Grand Lodge 
to re-charter the old Chester Lodge 
No. 69, but the application was not 
successful ; so a new charter had to be 
obtained, which was done, and Ches- 
ter Lodge No. 236, was instituted by 
a charter granted by the Grand Lodge 
of Pennsylvania, bearing date Dec. 4, 
1848. The Lodge was instituted Feb. 
23, 1849, by the installation of George 
W. Bartram, as Worshipful Master ; 
Joseph Weaver, as Senior Warden; 
and Alexander M. Wright, as Junior 
Warden. The charter members were 
George M. l^artram, Samuel R. Lam- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



199 



plugh, James Campbell, Isaac S. Wil- 
liams, Ezekiel Norman, Thomas Ba- 
ker, Joseph Baker, John Martin, Alex- 
ander M. Wright and others ; many 
of them members of the old Chester 
Lodge No. 69. 

On April 5, 1849, ^^ the first regu- 
lar communication for business, John 
Larkin, Jr., and Charles D. Manley, 
Esq., were entered, being the first ap- 
plicants. George W. Bartram served 
three years as Master. Joseph Weaver 
was then elected W. M., but died a 
short time thereafter, when John Lar- 
ken , Jr. , was elected W. M. The Lodge 
increased in membership very rapidly, 
and although all the charter members 
of Lucius H. Scott Lodge, withdrew 
to form the new Lodge, Chester Lodge 
now bears upon its rolls 194 members 
(June, 1873). The list of its succes- 
sive Worshipful Masters has been as 
follows, viz. : 



Geo. W. Bartram, 


1848 


John M. Greig, 


1863 


Joseph Weaver, 


1851 


Dr. J. L. Forwood, 


1864 


John Larkin, Jr., 


1852 


Col. Thos. I. Leiper 


i86s 


Charles D. Manley, 


1853 


Dr. John M. Allen, 


1866 


Joseph R. Morris, 


1854 


John Fountain, 


1867 


Perciphor Baker, 


1855 


George Robinson, 


1868 


Thad. K. Martin, 


1856 


Dr. Jacob Boon, 


1869 


James Wilkey, 


1857 


Wm. H. Flavin, 


1870 


Samuel Cliff, 


1858 


Robert S. Taylor, 


1871 


James Holmes, 


1859 


Lewis W. Govett, 


1872 


Dan. B. Thomson, 


i860 


Thomas Mould, 


1873 


George Baker, 


1862 


James Gartside, 


1874 



Since the organization of the Lodge, 
regular monthly communications have 
been held, during which time 322 
members have been initiated, and 34 
admitted from other Lodges. I had 
intended to give here a list of the 
members of the Lodge, living and 
dead ; on mature consideration, I 
have decided not to give a list of 
those living. The list of deceased 
brothers is as follows, viz. : 



George W. Bartram, 
William Blair, 
John Booth, 



Theop. D. Mustin, 
Philip Morris, 
Thaddeus K. Marti i 



James S. Neil, 
James Campbell, 
William Crozer, 
Thomas Donaldson, 
John Donaldson, 
William W. Doyle, 
Charles W. Deans, 
George Derbyshire, 
George Evans, 
George W. Flood, 
John Goff, 
William L. Grubb, 
Dr. Chas. G. M. Griffith, 
Robert Gartside, 
James Holmes, 
Robert R. Johnson, 
Adam Keen, 
Samuel R. Lamplugh, 
Washington B. Levis, 
John Martin, 

Jonathan P 



Joseph Monroe, 
John Maloney, 
Robert Marlor, 
Robert McCall, 
David W. Morrison, 
Wm. H. McChntock, 
Samuel Palmer, 
William Rhodes, 
George B. T. Robinson, 
Thomas M. Smith, 
Lewis Speakman, 
Charles Shrowder, 
John Schureman, 
James Talley, 
Ralph Taylor. 
William R. Thatcher, 
Joseph Weaver, 
Alexander M. Wright, 
Isaac S. Williams, 
A. K. Winslow, 
Worrall. 



The meeting-room of Chester Lodge, 
is over the store of Hinkson & Smed- 
ley, on Market Square, which is well 
fitted up. The Lodge meets on Thurs- 
day nights before the full moon. I am 
indebted to Brother Secretary William 
Hinkson, for the data which has en- 
abled me to write thus fully of his 
Lodge. 

" When the Jr. Warden to refreshment calls us, 

And the Sun is at meridian's height, 
Let us merrily, unite most cheerily 
In social harmony, new joys invite, 
One and all at his call. 
To the feast repairing. 
All around joys resound, 
Each the pleasure sharing." 

After a regular communication of 
Chester Lodge, on Dec. i, 1870, the 
officers to serve for the ensuing year, 
commencing on St. John's day, hav- 
ing been elected, the members partook 
of the usual annual supper at the hall, 
prepared by the well-known caterer, 
John Munshower, in excellent style. 
The entertainment was attended by 
the brethren, accompanied by their 
wives and sweethearts ; an unusual 
circumstance ; this being the first ap- 
pearance of the fair ones at a Masonic 
supper at Chester, or elsewhere. Their 



200 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



presence gave an additional charm to 
the place, and to the order and har- 
mony, which ahvays marks an assem- 
blage of the brothers of the mystic tie. 

" In the West sec the Wardens submissively 

stand, 
The Master to aid and obey his commands, 
The intent of his signal we perfectly know. 
And we ne'er take offence when he give us a 

l)Iow." 

The L. H. Scott Lodge, No. 352, 
A. Y. M., was chartered Dec. 27, 1864. 
The charter members are John P. M. 
Greig, George Baker, Henry B. Tay- 
lor, George E. Darlington, Esq., James 
Barton, Jr., Stephen C. Hall, Charles 
D. Pennell, Alfred Taylor, Rev. John 
R. Quigg, William D. Pennell, S. H. 
Stevenson, John H. Barton, George 
Wilson, Samuel A. Dyer, S. F. Baker 
and Charles J. Andrews, 

The Lodge was constituted March 
16, 1865, and the following ofificers 
installed :— J. P. M. Greig, W. M. ; 
Henry B. Taylor, S. W. ; George E. 
Darlington, Esq., J. W. ; George Ba- 
ker, Treasurer, and James Barton, Jr., 
Secretary. The present number of 
members (March, 1873), '^ 7°- The 
regular communications of the Lodge 
are held in the same room occupied 
by the parent Lodge, No. 236. 

I have a full suit of the Regalia of the 
Master of a Masonic Lodge, once be- 
longing to and worn by my grandfather, 
Dr. William Martin, and a large Punch 
bowl and Pitcher, made of fine white 
delft-ware, both covered with emblems 
of our mystic craft. On the bottom of 
the bowl, inside, is blazoned in the 
semblance of a coat of Arms, argent, 
on a chevron, sa. an opened compa.ss, 
between three castles, ppr. resting on 
a tessellated pavement, from which rise 
two columns ; and on a ribbon woimd 
around the base of the dexter column, 



are the words sit lux, and on the sinis- 
ter, F.T LUX FUiT. Crest, a bare arm 
couped at the shoulder, cnihoived, 
grasping a gavel, ppr. Motto, amor 
HONOR ET JUSTITIA. Supporters, two 
Master Masons in full regalia, each 
standing on an Altar as a base. The 
whole surrounded by scroll work, orna- 
mented with Masonic symbols, above 
which is the '' all seeing Eye," looking 
from out a cloud studded with stars, 
over which is engraven : — "a heart 

THAT CONCEALS AND A TONGUE THAT 

NEVER REVEALS." Encircling the in- 
side rim of the bowl are emblems twined 
with ribbons; on the exterior, symbolic 
designs of the Order, and in the centre 
of one group are the words, 

" The world is in pain 

f )ur secret to gain. 
But still let them wonder & gaze on, 

For they ne'er can divine. 

The WORD nor the sign. 
Of a Free and accepted Mason." 

Similar ornaments decorate the Pitch- 
er, under the spout of which, enclosed 
in the space formed by the Square and 
an expanded Compass, is the mysterious 
letter G. On one side of the pitcher are 
two columns standing upon a tessellated 
floor ; around both are coiled ribbons ; 
on the right one is printed vide, aude, 
TACE, and on the other, sit lux, et lux 
FUIT ; between the columns, are various 
emblems of Masonry, and the words 
MEMENTO MORI, above the letter G. 
The right hand column is surmounted 
by a female figure bearing a cross, rep- 
resenting Faith. On the left hand one, 
is a female bearing in her arms a child, 
leading another one by her hand, em- 
blematic of Charity, while above, en- 
circled by a semi-circle of leaves and 
roses, rests Hope with her Anchor ; the 
whole is surmounted l)y two (|uill jjcns 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



201 



crossed, and tied together with ribbons, 
forming a true lover's knot. 

This bowl and pitcher were present- 
ed by the Members of Lodge No. 69, 
A. Y. M., to my grandfather. 

The.se Punch bowls and Pitchers were 
made to the order of Richard Potter, 
an Englishman, and an enthusiastic 
Mason, in the latter part of the last 
century. 

XX. 

Chester was again incorporated as 
a Borough, under the new order of 
things after the Revolution, by Act 
of Assembly of this Commonwealth, 
of March 5, 1795. See Carey 6^ Bi- 
oren'' s ed. of the Laws of Pa. (1803), 
5 vol., 42, recorded in Law Book 5, 
p. 387, &c., as follows : 

An Act to Erect the To2vn of Chester and its, 
Vicinity, in the County of Delatvare, into 
a Borough, and for other purposes therein 
mentioned. 

Whereas, The inhabitants of the town of 
Chester and its vicinity, in the county of Del- 
aware, have by their petition, prayed to be in- 
corporated, and that the said town and vicin- 
ity, as hereinafter described, should be erected 
into a Borough ; therefore. 

Sec. I. Be it enacted by the Senate and 
House of Representatives of the Coni7?iotiwealth 
of Pennsylvania, in General Assembly met, 
and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the 
same. That the town of Chester, with its vicin- 
ity, in the county of Delaware, shall be, and 
the same is hereby erected into a Borough, 
which shall be called the Borough of Chester, 
the extent of which said Borough is, and shall 
be comprised within the following boundaries; 
that is to say, beginning on the river Delaware, 
at the mouth of Lamokin run, at low water 
mark ; thence up the said river to the mouth 
of Ridley Creek ; thence up the creek to the 
place where a line, two miles from and paral- 
lel with the low water mark in the Delaware, 
will intersect the same, being a corner of 
the former Borough ; thence along the said 
parallel line to Chester Creek, another ancient 
corner of said Borough ; thence down the said 



creek to the place where the line lielween the 
lands formerly of David Co^^■pland and John 
Salkeld, directly continued, would intersect 
the same : thence down the said line to the 
Delaware, the place of beginning. 

Sec. 2. And be it fui-ther enacted by the 
authority aforesaid, That the freeholders and 
such other of the inhabitants as are qualified 
to elect members of the General Assembly, 
and shall have resided within the limits of 
the Borough at least for the space of one whole 
year next preceding any such election as is 
hereinafter directed, shall have power, on the 
first Monday in April in every year, to choose 
by ballot, at the county Court House, from 
amongst the inhabitants qualified to elect as 
aforesaid, two fit persons to be Burgesses, 
and that the person having the greatest num- 
ber of votes shall be the Chief Burgess; and 
also to elect, from amongst the inhabitants 
qualified to elect as aforesaid, three suitable 
persons as Assistants, for advising and aiding 
the said Burgesses in the execution of the pow- 
ers and authorities hereby given them ; and 
also to elect a High Constable and Town 
Clerk ; all and every of which persons .shall 
be resident within the said Borough of Chester. 

Sec. 3. And be it firthcr enacted by the 
authority afresaid. That the Sheriff of the 
county of Delaware, for the time being, shall 
open and hold the election on the fir.st Monday 
in April next, and call to his assistance three 
reputable freeholders of the said Borough, who 
shall take the votes of the electors, and count 
them oft', and publicly declare the names of 
those voted for and chosen to be Burgesses 
and Assistants, High Constable and Town 
Clerk, as aforesaid ; and on the first Monday 
in April, in every year thereafter, the Burgess- 
es and assistants shall open and hold the said 
election in manner aforesaid. 

Sec. 4. A)id be it fia-ther enacted by the 
authority afresaid. That if any of the inhab- 
itants of the Borough, qualified as aforesaid, 
shall be elected to the office of Burgess, and, 
having notice of his or their election, shall re- 
fuse to undertake and execute that office, each 
person so refusing shall pay a fine of five 
pounds ; and if any of the inhabitants of the 
Borough, qualified as aforesaid, who shall be 
elected to any other office, shall refuse to un- 
dertake and execute the office to which he 
shall be chosen, he shall pay a fine of three 
pounds for the use of the said corporation ; 



'2i)2 



HISTORY OF CHESTEK'. 



find ill any such case the said acting Burgesses 
shall issue ihcir process, directed to the High 
Constable, re([uiring him to hold an election 
for the choice of some other fit person, in the 
stead of such who shall so refuse. 

Sec. 5. Au(/ be it further enacted by the 
atitliority ciforesaid, That the Chief Burgess 
shall take and subscribe an oath or affirmation, 
before one of the Justices of the Peace for the 
county of Delaware, to support the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, and of this State, 
and an oath or affirmation well and truly to 
execute the office of Chief Burgess of the Bo- 
rough of Chester ; and when so qualified, he 
shall administer an oath or affirmation to the 
other Burgess, Assistants, High Constable and 
Town Clerk, in manner and form aforesaid, 
before they shall enter upon their respective 
offices. 

Sec. 6. And he it further enacted by the 
authority aforesaid. That it shall and may be 
lawful for the Burgesses and inhabitants afore- 
said, and their successors, to have, hold and 
keep, within the said Borough, two markets 
in each week to wit : one market on Wednes- 
day, and one market on Saturday, in the com- 
mon market-place of the said Borough, to- 
gether with free liberties, customs, profits and 
emoluments to the said markets belonging; 
and that there shall be a Clerk to the Market, 
who shall and may perform all things belong- 
ing to the office of Clerk of the Market within 
the said Borough, which said Clerk of the 
Market shall be nominated, and from time to 
time appointed by the Burgesses and Assist- 
ants, or any three "of them, the Chief Burgess 
being one, and shall be removable by them, 
as they shall find necessary. 

Sec. 7. And be it further enacted by the 
authority aforesaid. That it shall and may be 
lawful for the Burgesses and inhabitants afore- 
said, to assemble in town-meetings, as often as 
occasion may require, and make such ordi- 
nances and rules, and assess such ta.xes not 
repugnant to or inconsistent with the laws of 
this State, as to the majority of the inhabitants 
a.ssembled aforesaid shall seem necessary for 
the good government of the .said Borough, and 
the same to revoke, alter and make anew, as 
convenience may require, which said town- 
meetings shall be assembled by the Burgesses 
aforesaid, at their discretion, who shall require 
the High Constable to give at least five days' 
notice of such intendetl town-meeting by ad- 



I vertisements, fixed up in at least six o( the 
most public jilaees in the said Borough, noti- 
fying the time, place and object of such in- 
tended town-meeting. 

The following is the copy of a paper, 
endorsed, "Address to the President 
of the United States," found among 
the papers of Dr. William Martin, in 
his hand-writing. William Graham, 
Esq., was or had been Captain of the 
Comi)any mentioned, and it is proba- 
ble that Dr. Martin was also one of its 
officers. It is to be regretted that the 
names of the signers are not attached 
to the address. No doubt the paper I 
have is the original, which accounts for 
the absence of the names. Its con- 
tents are in the words following : 

" To the President of the United States. The 
address of the officers and soldiers of the Ches- 
ter Light Infantry Company of Volunteers, of 
the county of Delaware and State of Penna. 

Sir : — In the present eventful crisis of pub- 
lick affiiirs, we beg leave to approach you with 
affection & confidence; with affection, because 
we live under a government of our own choice ; 
with confidence, because we believe its con- 
stituted authorities have done all that could 
be done, consistent with national honor & in- 
dependence to preserve peace. Believing with 
you that ' A free republick is the best of govern- 
ments, and the greatest blessing that mortals 
can aspire to,' it is our fixed determination 
to give it every support in our power, and we 
trust that under Chiefs who have so ably con- 
ducted our country to independence, there will 
be no doubt of maintaining it against a foe who 
has left no arts untried to rob us of it. Adverse 
to war as Americans and Christians, we should 
have been happy to have spent our lives in the 
enjoyment of peace, but when that peace is to 
be the price of national degradation, and the 
enjoyment of it so purchased, wholly insecure, 
we have, no hesitation in choosing the alterna- 
tive, with a confident reliance on that Provi- 
dence, which on more than one occasion has 
manifestly interfered to the safety and happi- 
ness of the American people. 

Under these impressions we offer our liest 
services to our country, and beg you to accejit 
this tender of them, with the assurance that 



HISToliY OF CHEST EK. 



203 



when circumstances require it we are ready to 
take the field. In the presence of the God of 
Armies, we make the offer and pledge our- 
selves to fulfil it. Accept Sir, our best wishes 
for your happiness ; may you have the felicity 
of seeing our country pennanently placed upon 
that footing of Peace and Independence which 
your ardent patriotism and unwearied exer- 
tions in the cause of genuine freedom lead us 
to suppose, is the prime wish of your heart. 
Chester, Aug. 25, 1 798. Signed by unanimous 
consent." 

Dr. William Martin was born in the 
city of Philadelphia, Sept. 2, 1765, of 
which city his father, John Martin, was 
a resident. He was a practising lawyer 
in Chester, as well as a Physician. His 
father was undoubtedly a Friend, and 
from the Doctor's choice of Chester 
for his residence, I think our family are 
descendants of the English family of 
the same name that settled originally 
in Chester (now Delaware) county, on 
the adjoining tract to that taken up by 
Richard Crosby, in Middletown. The 
Doctor resided in the stone house, the 
site of which is now occupied by the 
residence of Mrs. Gray, the widow of 
Dr. William Gray. The old locust 
trees still standing in front of the pre- 
sent mansion, were planted by my 
grandfather about 1795 or '96. The 
old office occupied by the Doctor, is 
still standing in good repair, to the 
west of Mrs. Gray's dwelling. It is a 
small frame building, and is still used 
for offices, but has been divided, and 
has two occupants. Mrs. Anderson 
told me -that the Doctor could never 
be induced to go to the funeral of one of 
his patients, saying: "It looked too 
much like a carpenter taking his own 
work home." It shows he had a grim 
kind of humor. I have his diploma of 
Bachelor of Medicine from the " Uni- 
versity of Philadelphia," which did 
not then grant diplomas of Doctor of 
Medicine. It bears date Jtily 3, 1786. 



Dr. Joseph Carson, the author of the 
History of the University of Penn- 
sylvania, says : It is the only diploma 
of the old University known to have 
been preserved. It is in as good con- 
dition as it was on the day it was con- 
ferred, as is also his diploma from the 
" American Medical Society," or as it 
is written, " Sodetas Medica Ameri- 
cana,'''' bearing date, 1786. Dr. Car- 
son is a Professor in the University of 
Pennsylvania, and has a rare and valu- 
able collection of manuscripts, illustra- 
tions, letters, autographs and other 
papers relating to the history of that 
famous old medical college, to graduate 
at which is esteemed an honor at home 
and abroad. 

I have also Dr. William Martin's 
certificate of admission to practice as 
an Attorney in the Court of Common 
Pleas of Philadelphia, dated March 24, 
1794, and signed "Charles Biddle, 
Prothonotary." I have also his com- 
mission as Justice of the Peace for the 
townships of Chester, Ridley, Middle- 
town and Lower Providence, in the 
county of Delaware, dated Aug. 9, 
1797, signed " Thos. Mifflin." 

Among the many old papers that 
have been preserved in the family, I 
have an old commission to John Cros- 
by, as one of the Judges of the Court 
of ComiTion Pleas in and for the coun- 
ty of Delaware, dated April 26, A. D., 
1799, signed "Thos. Mifflin." 

Judge Crosby, during the Revolu- 
tion, was the Captain of a Chester coun- 
ty company of infantry, attached to the 
" Flying Camp," at Perth Amboy, in 
Col. Morgan's regiment.* When the 

*Col. Jacob Morgan, Jr., commanded the 
1st Battalion of Pa. Militia, in the Brigade 
under Brig. Gen. John Cad^^•alader, in 1776 
and '77 ; 5 Archives, 188. He was one of the 
purchasers of land in Tinicum, part of the con- 
fiscated estate of Joseph Galloway, Esq., a con- 
victed Traitor. 



204 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



company was first mustered into service, 
at the White Horse Tavern, John Cros- 
by was its First Lieutenant, and the 
company was commanded by Captain 
Culin. tlie brdthcr of tlie Judge's first 
wife. A few niiniitcs alter they were 
mustered in. ('apt. Culin was shut dead 
by a private, and John Crosby took 
command. Afterwards during the war, 
while on a visit to his family in Ridley, 
he was taken prisoner by a boat's crew 
from a British man-of-war then lying 
off Chester, and taken on board the 
vessel ; he was afterwards transferred to 
one of the prison ships at New York, 
where his wife went on a visit to him, 
and he obtained his release on parole, 
not to serve again during the war, or 
until exchanged.. It is said his hair 
turned white during his confinement, 
which lasted about six months. His 
residence was on the east bank of Rid- 
ley creek, a short distance above Ridley 
Creek Bridge over the Great Southern 
or old Queen's Road. The boats of 
the British ship ascended the creek at 
night, under the guidance of a near 
neighbor of Captain Oosby, and he 
was arrested while washing himself 
at the pump near the door of his 
house. The neighbor's name who.be- 
trayed the Captain to the enemy is 
given in family tradition as Efifinger. 
Henry Efifinger, Jr.'s name appears 
upon the " Black List ;" a list of those 
who were attainted as traitors during 
the Revolution, yet it appears that on 
Jan. I, 1784, John Crosby, the youn- 
ger, of Ridley, yeoman, and Ann his 
wife, sold to Henry Efifinger, Jr., of 
Springfield, .some land. 

In 16 Col. R., 372, it is stated: 
" The Register and Comptroller Gen'l 
reports upon the account of Capt. 
David Crosby, for the pay of his com- 
pany of Chester County Militia, in the 



Battalion commanded by Col. Jno. Mc- 
Dowell, while under marching orders 
from the Lieutenant of the county in 
Oct. 17S1:" see also 16 C. R., 424. 
And I find also mentioned as captains 
of Chester County Militia during the 
same ])eriod, Robert Elton, Israel 
Moore, Jonathan Rowland and John 
Bryan. 

I have not been able to trace the 
relationship of Captain David Crosby 
I to the Crosby's of Ridley. Samuel 
Crosby, of Londonderry, carpenter, by 
his will, dated Jan. 23, 1776, proven 
Mar. 29, 1776, gives all his estate to 
his mother, Rachel Crosby, and broth- 
ers and sister, John, David, Rachel 
(Crosby,) and Thomas. Executors, 
John and David Crosby. The name 
is written Cosby in the will, but he 
made his mark, and the name is un- 
derscored as incorrect, and it is spelled 
Crosby in the probate. 

Edw'd S. Sayres, Brazilian Consul 
at Philadelphia, says he visited the an- 
cient Cro-sby mansion lately, to revive 
old memories. That when a young 
man, in the winter of 1821-2, he visited 
the sons of Judge Crosby, then living 
in the old house by Ridley creek, and 
after an evening passed pleasantly with 
two pretty and jolly daughters of the 
Judge, he and the Crosby boys sat up 
late drinking mulled cider. He also 
says he attended the wedding of one of 
the late Pierce Crosby's daughters, 
(they were his cousins,) at Crosby's 
mills, just above the old dwelling re- 
ferred to ; that it was quite agrand afifair, 
a building being erected on the lawn 
to accommodate the dancers. 

In 12 Col. R., 372, under date of 
June 2, 1780, John Crosby, John 
Hannum, William Evans and Thomas 
Heslip, were appointed (for Chester 
county) to execute " an Act for pro- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



205 



curing an immediate supply of provi- | 
sions for the Federal army in its pre- 
sent exigency. ' ' And at a later date, p. 
393, an entry is made in the minutes 
of Council, that " an order was drawn 
on the Treasurer in favour of Mr. John 
Crozier, for the sum of 600 dollars in 
part of a certificate for five head of 
cattle purchased by John Crosby, Jr. , 
Commissioner for Purchases in the 
county of Chester, agreeable to an Act 
of Assembly passed the ist of June, 
instant." And on the 21st of July, 
1 780, another order was drawn (p. 399) 
on the Treasurer in favor of John Cro- 
zier, for 6,467 dollars and two-thirds, 
Continental money, in State money, 
at the rate of sixty Continental money, 
in full for five head of cattle purchased 
by John Crosby, Jr., Commissioner, 
&c. This appears to be a heavy price 
to pay for five head of cattle, but it was 
really only ^42 per head. 

It will be noticed that the family 
name now rendered Crozer, was then, 
and until very recently, I believe, spell- 
ed Crozier, which meant a Bishop's 
crook or pastoral staff, a symbol of 
pastoral authority and care ; originally 
a Crosier was a staff with a cross on the 
top, in the form of a crutch or T. 

The first of the name of Crosby, who 
settled in Chester, now Delaware coun- 
ty, Pa. , was Richard Crosby, who came 
from Cheshire, (a corruption of Ches- 
tershire) in England, about 1682, and 
located himself in Middletown, he 
having been a purchaser before emi- 
grating to this country. See i Penn- 
sylvania Archives, 45, among lists of 
purchasers, "Richard Crossby, 1000 
acres." He had also a lot on Race 
street, Philadelphia, assigned to him as 
one of the first purchasers. See Read's 
Map and Survey, z\%o Patent Book, A, 
I vol. 230-1, and 363. He seems very 



soon after settling to have sold his land 
in Middletown, and removed to Ches- 
ter, where in 1684, he was appointed 
a collector " to gather the assessments" 
made for the Court house and prison, 
along with Edward Carter for Ches- 
ter, and Andrew Nelson for Providence. 
About this time he purchased the pro- 
perty on Ridley Creek, ever since 
known as " Crosby's Mills," and which 
until very recently was owned by his.de- 
scendants. 

At a Monthly Meeting at Chester, 
II mo. 4, 1685, Ellinor Crosby and 
Mary Button were appointed to inquire 
concerning the clearness of Jane Lang- 
ley, on account of her intended mar- 
riage with Thomas Cartwright. 

Jasper Yeates and Joseph Jervis, 
acknowledged a deed in open court to 
Richard and John Crosby, for a mill 
and 63 acres of land in Middletown, 
dated 27th of Feb., 1704-5; and 
Richard and John Crosby acknow- 
ledged a lease of the same property to 
James Cooper for twenty-one years, 
dated 25th of Mar. 1705. This is 
thought to have been the mill on Rid- 
ley creek, just above the rail road 
bridge, near Media. 

Mar. I, 1 71 1. Richard Crosby of 
Ridley, yeoman, and wife Elianor, 
Nicholas Fairlamb of Chester, mer- 
chant, and Katharine his wife, daugh- 
ter of the said Richard and Elianor, 
convey to William Pennell, 270 acres 
of land in Middletown, which Richard 
had given but not conveyed to Nicholas 
and Katharine Fairlamb, This was 
part of 370 acres patented to Richard 
Crosby, May 18, 1685, in right of his 
purchase from John ap John and 
Thomas Wynne, May 11, 1682; he 
having sold the other 100 acres to 
Robert Pennell, father of William. 
Elianor made her mark. 



206 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



John Crosby made the following ac- 
knowledgment to Chester meeting, 
dated Ridley, 9 mo. 20,1719: "Where- 
as I have unadvisedly broke the good 
order Established amongst ffriends in 
case of marriage, tending to the breach 
of unity in the brotherhood, and an 
Example of Looseness to young people, 
for which I am heartily sorry and desire 
the forgiveness of God and of my 
Brethren," &c. 

Richard and Eleanor Crosby had 
several children ; one daughter, Catha- 
rine, married Nicholas Fairlamb in 
1703. He came from Stockton in Dur- 
ham, England, settled in Philadelphia, 
and afterwards removed to Middletown. 
John Fairlamb, son of Nicholas and 
Catharine (Crosby,) was married 11 
mo. 13, 1742, to Susannah, the daugh- 
ter of Frederick Engle, whose wife 
Ann, was the daughter of Joseph and 
Mary Cloud. Frederick Engle died 
in 1737, and about a year after, his 
widow married Jonathan Vernon. 

John Fairlamb, of Middletown, died 
in 1766, leaving nine children: Ni- 
cholas, Frederick, Samuel, John, Cath- 
arine, Anne, Susannah, Eleanor and 
Mary. He appears to have been in 
easy circumstances, and appointed 
his trusty friend, Henry Hale Graham, 
as principal executor of his will, and 
guardian of his minor children. His 
widow married in 1769, Robert Pen- 
nell, and died about 1793. Of the 
children, Nicholas was married in 1 768, 
to Hannah Preston ; Frederick in 1 767, 
to Mary Pennell, adaughter of Robert ; 
Samuel in 1774, to Hannah, dau. of 
Francis Richardson ; John in 1 784, to 
Susannah Ashbridge. Susannah died 
unmarried, in 1786. Annie married 
John Pedrick. Catharine was married 
4 mo. 3, 1773, by Friends' ceremony, 
before H. Hale Graham and otiiers, at 



the house (^f her brother Samuel, in 
Chester, to Peter Hill, son of William 
Hill, deceased, of Middletown. They 
were the parents of the late John Fair- 
lamb Hill, who was their youngest child, 
Peter Hill built a large cotton factory 
on the Brandywine, near West Chester, 
which is known by the name of Hills- 
dale factory, but for many years it has 
been converted intoapapermill. John 
Fairlamb was a Justice of the Peace, 
and of the Courts in 1761, and again 
in 1764; Sheriff of the county from 
1762 to 1765; and a member of the 
Assembly from 1760 to 1765. 

Thomas Dunbarbin, (or Dunbabin) 
came from Cheshire in or about 1714, 
and died in Aston the following year. 
In his will he mentions his cousins John 
Crosby of Ridley and Catharine Fair- 
lamb, but no wife or children of his 
own. 

In the Delaware County Republican 
of May 27, 1870, there will be found 
a notice of the death, from a gun-shot 
wound, of Joseph C, a son of R. Cros- 
by Fairlamb, evidently a descendant 
of this daughter of Richard Crosby. 
Another daughter married Robert Dut- 
ton, they had two daughters, Susannah 
and 'Hannah. Richard Crosby died 
intestate in 1718, and letters of ad- 
ministration were granted to his sun, 
John Crosby, May 2, 1718. 

This son of Richard, John Crosby, 
better known in the family records as 
" Squire Crosby," was commissioned a 
Justice of the Courts, and ex-officio Jus- 
tice of the Peace for the county of Ches- 
ter, Aug. 25, 1726, and again in 1730, 
'37, and' 38, and remained in office until 
hisdeath. iCol.R.,2ix. In 1723-4 
he was a member of the Provincial As- 
sembly. His will, on record at West 
Chester, is dated Sep. 22, 1750, and was 
])r()ven Oct. 15, of the same vear, so he 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



207 



died between those periods. He devised 
his real estate about equally between 
his two sons John and Richard. He 
left John the plantation he lived upon 
at Ridley, and directed that his body 
" be decently buryed in Friends' Bury- 
ing Ground, at Chester, by or near 
my relations." He gave legacies to 
his daughter-in-law, Ellinor Crosby, 
to his sister Catharine Fairlamb, to his 
cotisins, (nephew) John Fairlamb, and 
his (niecesj Susannah and Hannah, 
daughters of Robert Button, and to his 
grand-daughter Susannah Crosby, and 
his grand -sons Richard and Samuel 
Crosby. It will be observed that the 
Squire calls his nephew and nieces, 
cousins ; in a general sense this term 
applies to all those more remotely re- 
lated than a brother or sister, and was 
in common use at that time. 

John Crosby was half-owner of a 
forge, which he devised to his son John, 
" together with my part of the utensils 
belonging thereto." Peter Kalm, the 
Swedish naturalist, who visited Chester 
County in 1 748, says, " About two En- 
glish miles behind Chester I passed an 
iron forge, which was to the right hand 
of the roadside. It belonged to two 
brothers, as I was told. The ore is not, 
however, dug here, but thirty or forty 
miles hence, where it is first melted in 
an oven, and then carried to this place. 
The bellows were made of leather ; and 
both they and the hammers, and even 
the hearth, but small in proportion to 
ours. All the machines were worked 
by water." Dr. Smith, 258, says, 
' ' The location of this forge must have 
been on Crum creek, just Avhere it is 
crossed by the Post Road. ' ' Acrclius, 
p. 165, says, the iron works at " Crum 
creek belong to Peter Dicks, has two 
stacks, is worked sluggishly, and has 
ruined Crosby's family;" this was 



sometime previous to 1756, but the 
statement as to the family is erroneous. 

It might be inferred from what Kalm 
says, that Squire Crosby had a brother, 
but such was not the case. The other 
half-owner of the forge was Peter Dicks. 
See Smith's History, note 258, and 
statement at page 254, that "A con- 
troversy brought before Chester month- 
ly meeting, in 1742, between Thomas 
Dell of the one part, and John Crosby 
and Peter Dicks of the other, reveals the 
fact that the latter (party) had erected 
a forge on Crum creek." 

8 mo. 25, 1742. "The Representa- 
tives of Chester meeting have acquaint- 
ed this meeting that there is some 
Difference between John Crosby and 
Thomas Dell, because the said John 
Crosby and Peter Dicks haveing built a 
forge on Crum crick, y** damm where- 
of overflows some part of y^ said Dell's 
land, the Damage of which they have 
not yet been capable to settle, neither 
by themselves, nor by some assistance 
they have had, y" said Thomas Dell 
haveing insisted to have a certain 
sum of money yearly or to have the 
dam Pull'd down. After sum debate 
on the affair and Proposals of appoint- 
ing of friends to Indeavor to Recon- 
cile y^ said Difference, y" said Tho- 
mas Dell, being present, absolutely 
Refused to be determined by either 
friends of their own choice or such as 
the meeting should appoint, but Re- 
fused to Confer any Longer on the Oc- 
casion, and Departed the said meeting, 
not only without Leave, but Contrary 
to the Request and advice thereof." 

I mo. 28, 1743. "Thomas Dell 
hath Complained to this meeting that 
y'' damm at y'' forge on Crum creek yet 
overflows some part of his Land, and 
that they cannot agree to settle y* dif- 
ference or damage between them, nor 



208 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



will the said Thomas Dell chose men to 
(ieside y'^said difference; therefore this 
meeting appoints John Maris, William 
Pennell, Thomas Goodwin, Samuel 
Lewis, James Bartram and Joshua 
'I'hompson, to meett some time at y° 
said damm, between and next* meeting, 
to Compute y^ said Damage, and In- 
deavour to Reconcile y'^said difference, 
and make Report thereof at next meet- 
ing." 

2 mo. 25, 1743. The Committee 
report they cannot reconcile the parties, 
and that Thomas Dell is not willing for 
the matter to be determined by any- 
body but himself, but they think John 
Crosby & Peter Dicks should pay him 
^5 ^ annum so long as the water Dam- 
nifies the said Dell's land ; to which 
John cS: Peter, (being present) agree. 
Thomas Dell appealed to the Quarterly 
meeting ; what disposition was made 
of the case I have not ascertained. 

T have a copy of the original "Arti- 
cles of agreement between Jos. Carter, 
Jos. Carter, Jr., and Jacob Carter of 
y'' one part, and John Crosby, Junior, 
and Richard Crosby, all of y° township 
of Ridley," &c., dated Dec. 24, 1740, 
the consideration being " Four hun- 
dred weight of iron." The paper is 
so eaten by mice, that I cannot make 
out what the agreement is about ; but 
Crum is spelled Crumb creek, and the 
signatures are distinct. So no doubt 
Kalm is right. The two brothers, sons 
of the Squire, John Crosby, evidently 
carried on the forge at the time of his 
visit; perhaps they were the lessees. 
The forge was on the east branch of 
(rum creek, and very probablv stood 
near where Jacob Hewes' house now 
stands, just west of the bridge over the 
creek, below Leiperville. On the right 

''"■'■Between and nex/,'" a coniinon form of 
i-xpression in the lecorrls. 



hand side of the road, just east of Mr. 
Hewes' house, will be still seen a large 
enbankment with trees growing upon 
it. This I imagine was the breast of 
the dam, which gave the water power 
necessary for the forge, which Kalm 
speaks of being used. 

John Owen, Sheriff of Chester Coun- 
ty, certified to the Lt. Governor, Sept. 
18, 1750, that there was but one mill 
or engine for slitting and rolling iron 
within the county, and that was in 
Thornbury, erected by John Taylor in 
1746, which had been in operation 
until June 1750, and that there was no 
plating forge to work with a tilt-ham- 
mer, nor any furnace for making steel, 
in the county. 

XXI. 

I HAVE an old deed of John Crosby 
and Susannah his wife, to George Van 
Culin, dated Nov. 10, 1724. Mrs. 
Crosby must have died before her hus- 
band, as she is not mentioned in his Avill. 

John and Susannah Crosby had only 
the two children, the sons mentioned, 
John and Richard. 

In the Pennsylvania Gazette of July 
26, 1770, there is an advertisement 
offering a reward for a bay mare, taken 
from the plantation of Richard Cros- 
by, the elder, late of Ridley township, 
signed William Worrall, Administra- 
tor. This was the Richard Crosby that 
lived at the quarries on Crum creek, 
whose quaint old mansion is still stand- 
ing near where tlie railroad bridge of 
the Chester branch of the Reading Rail- 
road crosses that creek. 

John Crosby (the 2nd), son of John 
and Susannah, was born at the old fami- 
ly mansion on Ridley creek, June 4, 
1721, old style. His wife's name was 
Eleanor Graham, (so says family tra- 
dition. ) Until lately I alwavs took it 



HISTORY OF CHESTEK. 



209 



for granted that she was a sister or near 
relative of Henry Hale Graham, who 
was very intimate with her husband, but 
later research appears to show that she 
was not. 

John Crosby (the 2nd) died Sept. 
9, 1788, aged 67 years, 2 months and 
24 days. His widow, Eleanor, died 
July 7, 1793, aged 70 years. They 
had several children — Richard Crosby, 
(the 3rd,) who died May 24, 1790. 
He married and had a daughter Eliza- 
beth. See will of Eleanor Crosby, on 
file at Media, proved Aug. 15, 1793. 
Susannah, who married Caleb Phipps, 
and had issue Elisha, Isaac and Crosby 
Phipps, and John Crosby. 

At Chester Monthly Meeting, held 
7 mo. 29, 1740, John Crosby, Jr., pro- 
duced an acknowledgment for marriage 
by a priest, which was accepted, and 
Thomas Cummings was appointed to 
read it in a First-day meeting at Ches- 
ter. 

Richard Crosby, (the 2d,) "a young 
man under y® notice of this meeting," 
was disowned 8 mo. 28, 1751, for some 
loose behaviour and keeping disorderly 
company. 

6mo. 25,1753. Elizabeth Crosby, 
wife of Richard, produced an acknow- 
ledgment for marrying out of meeting. 
She belonged to Springfield meeting, 
but her maiden name is not given. 

Richard was evidently married twice, 
for the records of Chester County, at 
West Chester, show that on April 
10, 1758, John Crosby, and wife El- 
eanor, released to his brother Richard, 
land devised to them undivided, and 
that on May 21, 1770, Richard Crosby 
and wife Alice, sold some of this land 
to William Rushton. 

Richard Crosby died intestate, and 
letters of administration to his estate 
were granted to William Worrall, June 



27, 1770, and from the records of the 
Orphans' Court it appears that he left 
five children, Samuel, Susanna, Joshua, 
Elisha and Alice, all minors. Lands 
were awarded to Samuel. The widow 
was wife of George Spear in 1775. 

On June 20, 1775, Samuel Crosby, 
cooper, of Philadelphia, sold land in 
Ridley, part of his father's estate, and 
another portion in 1776. 

Susan Crosby, no doubt the above 
named daughter of Richard, married 
Isaac Mcllvain. My aunt Smith re- 
members having seen her, and knew 
her son Thomas Mcllvain ; but we 
have no knowledge of any of the others. 
Isaac was probably the son of John 
Mcllvain by his first wife, Mary Roman . 

I have a refunding bond of Eleanor 
Crosby, widow, of Delaware Co., and 
Caleb Phipps, of Chester Co. , yeoman , 
and Susannah his wife, to John Cros- 
by, Executor of the last will of John 
Crosby, Sen'r, deceased, for ^600, 
dated April 23, 1790, stating that by 
a deed made the same day, they " Re- 
leased unto Elisha, Isaac and Crosby 
Phipps, all their right to the interest 
of a certain legacy of ^300, bequeathed 
by the last Will and testament afore- 
said to their use during their lives," &:c. 

John Crosby (the 2nd) was a mem- 
ber of the Provincial Assembly from 
1 768 to 1 7 7 1 , and Coroner of the coun- 
ty in 1771 and 1772. By his will, on 
record at West Chester, dated Aug. 30, 
1788, and pi'oved Oct. 4, 1788, he 
gives and bequeaths to "My dear and 
loving wife Eleanor, all my household 
goods and kitchen furniture of every 
sort and quality ; all my gears, imple- 
ments and utensils of husbandry, and 
all my stock of horses, cattle, sheep 
and swine ;" and devises to her all his 
real estate for the term of her natural 
life, and after her decease the same in 



'2M\ 



IIISTOHV OF CIIESTEK. 



trust, the income to be i)aid to his son 
Richanl, for his natural life, and after 
his death, the said real estate "To my 
grand-son, John Crosby, son of my son 
John. ' ' His will also contains legacies 
to his grand-children, " the children of 
my son John," but does not give their 
X, names. Also the interest of ^300 to 
his daughter Susannah Phipps, and af- 
ter her death the principal to be equal- 
ly divided between her children ; and 
appoints his son, John Crosby, and his 
grand-son, Elisha Phipps, his execu- 
tors. 

John Crosby, the 2n(lj resided about 
half a mileabove where the old Queen's 
road crosses Ridley creek, in a large 
stone house, with three rooms on the 
first or ground floor, one a very large 
kitchen, with a large open fire-place; 
so large was it that on one side within 
the jamb of the fire-place there was a 
window, with a bench under it to sit 
on in cold weather ; the large back-logs 
used in the fire-place were dragged into 
the kitchen by a horse, having a chain 
hitched around the log. One of these 
huge back-logs lasted a week even in 
winter. At a later date the kitchen 
was further heated by a large ten-plate 
iron stove which stood in the middle 
of the room. 

In the other two rooms there were 
large open fire-places, with large andi- 
rons, to support the burning wood, with 
brass headed shovel and tongs. The 
fire-place was ornamented with a high 
wooden mantel-piece, on which stood 
the large silver candlesticks used in 
those days. The entire mantel, which 
extended to the floor, was ornamented 
with panels of carved wood. This pro- 
perty was devised to "my grandson 
John Crosby, son of my son John." 
After his death the house was occupied 
by John L. Crosbv his son. until he 



built his late new residence on tlie hill, 
east of the highway, above the old man- 
sion on the creek, above described. 

John Crosby, (the 3rd,) son of John 
and Eleanor, better known among his 
descendants as "Judge Crosby," was 
born in tlie old mansion on Ridley 
creek. Mar. 12, 1747-48, and was 
a Captain of Infantry in the Revolu- 
tionary army, and was for sometime 
a prisoner of war, and was confined in 
the British ship "Falmouth," in the 
harbor of New York, during the time the 
English army occupied that city. He 
was an Associate Judge of the county 
Courts, and his first wife was a Miss 
Culin, sister of Captain Culin, as before 
stated. She died without issue, and 
he married secondly, Ann, the daugh- 
ter of Robert and Elizabeth Peirce, of 
Christiana Hundred, in the State of 
Delaware. She was born Feb. 11, 1747, 
died Aug. 7, 1825. This latter union 
was blessed with a numerous progeny. 
— Eleanor, b. Nov. 1 4, 1 7 70 ; she died 
eight days after ; Peirce ; John, Jr. ; 
Eleanor, /;. Ap'l 24, 1777; Richard, 
b. April 3, 1780, d. at sea; Ann & 
Elizabeth, twins, b. Aug. 14, 1782; 
Elizabeth, d. May 12, 1810; Susan- 
nah, b. Feb. 15, 1786, and Robert 
Peirce Crosby, b. June 7, 1789. 

My grand-aunt, Ann Crosby, born 
Aug. 14, 1782, did not marry until 
late in life, when she united her- 
self with George Ludwick. She was 
much beloved by her relatives, and 
affectionately called by all of them 
"Aunt Nancy." She died childless, 
Oct. 16, 1844, aged 62 years, and is 
buried in the old grave-yard of St. 
Paul's Church, at Chester. 

Peirce Crosby, of Crosby's Mills, 
for many years President of the Bank of 
Delaware County, was the second child 
of John and Ann, born Nov. 25, 1771 ; 



IIIS'lORY OF CHESTEK. 



211 



died July 26, 1853. He married (first) 
Christiana, a daughter of Jacob Rich- 
ards, (the elder) and had the follow- 
ing children: John (P.) Crosby, b. 
Dec. 17, 1795, (i- Feb. 10, 1828; 
Jacob Richards, b. Feb. 17, 1797, 
died in infancy. A/iii, b. July 30, 
1798; (she married James Leiper of 
Ridley, and had a daughter Elizabeth, 
who married John Holmes, and died 
Feb. I, 1873. After the death of Mr. 
Leiper, his widow married Thomas 
Hemphill, of Thornbury ; now dead. 
They had issue, Thomas W. , Margar- 
etta, Joseph, and Peirce Crosby. Mrs. 
Ann Hemphill, died Dec. 9, 1873, ^t 
her residence in Thornbury.) Peirce 
Crosby, Jr., /;. Jan. 3, 1800, died in 
infancy. Peirce, Jr., (2d) b. April 18, 
1805, died at the age of 21 years. He 
was aman of herculean size and strength. 
Sarah Crosby, daughter of Peirce and 
Christiana, b. Dec. 15, 181 4, m. Thos. 
Harrison, of Philadelphia, white lead 
manufacturer. They have issue, Mil- 
icent, who married William H. Tevis; 
George L. ; Virginia, married to James 
N. Whelen; Annie; Edward C, and 
Elizabeth. Christiana R., b. Oct. 24, 
1809, ;//. Charles L. Desauque, son of 
Louis Desauque, of Philadelphia. She 
died March 30, 1863. Mr. Desauque d. 
Jan. 27, 1872. They had three daugh- 
ters, Christiana, Caroline and Virginia, 
now dead, and three other children 
still living, Catharine, Peirce Crosby 
and Mortimer Desauque. Elizabeth 
Crosby, daughter of Peirce and Chris- 
tiana, married, first, Holland Bowen, 
of Chester County ; they had no is- 
sue. She married, secondly, Nathan- 
iel Davis. Their son, Peirce, was 
drowned in the mill-dam at *' Crosby 
Mills;" and their daughter, Jane, mar- 
ried Seth Holmes, of Philadelphia. 
She was one of the most beautiful wo- 



men I ever saw. She died in a decline, 
leaving two little children, who died 
in infancy. The youngest son of Peirce 
and Christian a, ^^wan/^zV/^ar^/j' Cros- 
by, b. Nov. 21, 181 1, w. Amanda Berry, 
of Washington, D. C, and died in 
1855, near Chester, leaving five chil- 
dren, Lucia, Susan, Antoinette, Ed- 
ward Richards, and Charles Raborg 
Crosby. On the occasion of the mar- 
riage of Holland Bowen and Elizabeth 
Crosby, Mr. Ed. S. Sayres says, a large 
dancing pavilion was erected on the 
lawn at Crosby's Mills, and the wed- 
ding festivities were in a style that 
was the wonder and talk of the county. 
John Crosby, Jr., (third child of 
John and Ann,) was/;, x^pril 4, 1774, 
d. Aug. 22, 1804. He married in Dec. 
18, 1794, Sarah, the daughter of Wil- 
I liam Lane, and Hannah Maddock his 
wife, of Springfield. (She died May 
6, 1858). They had issue, first, Ann 
Peirce, b. Dec. 31, 1795, d. May 27, 
1872. She married Aaron Taylor 
Morton, of Ridley. He died June 6, 
1840, leaving surviving him, his widow 
and several children . See Morton fam- 
ily, p. 143. Second, Rebecca, b. May 
13, 1797, d. Sept. II, 1850. She mar- 
ried John L. Lownes, of Springfield, 
and had two daughters ; Sarah, who m. 
Crosby P. Morton, and Hannah, who 
jn. William Maddock, of Ridley. They 
have an only son, Lownes Maddock, 
who m. Elizabeth Worrall. Third, 
John L ane^ Crosby, b. Jan. 24, 1799. 
He resided on the property where his 
parents lived before him, and died un- 
married, Aug. 10, 1 861. He was a 
stout, handsome, jovial man, full of 
humor. Fourth, Sarah, b. April 25, 
1 801, d. Dec. 21, 1865. She married 
Spencer Mcllvain, of Chester town- 
ship, near Ridley Creek, on the great 
road, one mile east of Chester. They 



2VA 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



liad two children ; Henry, married to 
Sallie, daughter of Edwin and Mary 
Pearson, and had three children, Spen- 
cer, Edward and Henry ; and a daugh- 
ter Annie Iv , married to Edward 
Clarke Diehl, Esc]., a member of the 
Philadelphia Bar, son of William and 
Mary A. Diehl. They have issue, Sal- 
lie, Ella and Mary Diehl. Fifth, £/isa, 
daughter of John and Sarah L. Crosby, 
was d. Oct. 24, 1803, //. May 7, 1823. 

Robert P. Crosby, youngest son of 
John and Ann, of Ridley, /a June 7, 
1789, if. Sept. 7, 1832, married Sarah 
Ann, daughter of Nathaniel and Cath- 
arine Davis, of Philadelphia, Sept. i. 
1810. Her father if. Aug. 24, 1798, 
and her mother, Aug. 27, 181 6. 

Robert P. and Sarah Ann Crosby, 
had the following children : /o/in, b- 
Dec. 7, i8n, and died in infancy. 
Jolvi Davis, b. July 19, 1813, d. Jan. 
10, 1835. Robert Peirce, b. April 19, 
1819, d. Nov. 28, 1846. Nathaniel 
Davis, b. June 10, 1822. He married 
his cousin, Mary John Crosby, daugh- 
ter of John P. and Catharine Beale, 
and died Sept. 19, 1843. He was a 
splendid looking fellow, and of ex- 
ceedingly graceful carriage ; and Eliza- 
beth, who died Feb. 10, 1827; all 
without leaving any issue. Catharine 
Davis, b. October 23, 1815, vi. 
Charles William Raborg, son of Wil- 
liam and Mary, of Baltimore, Md. 
He was /\ Dec. 25, 181 4, in Baltimore, 
and was a druggist in Chester. She 
died March 10, 1845, leaving issue, 
Joseph Cloud, b. Sept. 27, 1834, who 
died at New Orleans in 1853, and 
Emily Eislen Raborg, now a Catholic 
Nun, bearing the name of Emilie Mary 
Josephine. Her mother was a very 
sweet, lovely woman. They had also 
Robert C, Clara and Catharine, all 
of w^hom died young. Sarah Ann 



Crosby, youngest daughter of Robert 
P. and Sarah Ann, married Captain 
Isaac E. Engle, of Chester, a well- 
known merchant captain in the East 
India trade. He died in Macao, 
China, No\ . 3, 1844, of nervous fe- 
ver. He was a son of Edward Engle 
and Mary Preston his wife, of Ches- 
ter, and left surviving him, his widow 
and two children, James Edgar and 
Lucie Chauncy Engle. Edgar married 
Augusta Fox, of Rochester, N. Y. , and 
resides in Washington, D. C, and has 
issue, Charles and Clarence. He en- 
tered the 97th Penna. Vols, as a pri- 
vate, and was Color Corporal, and des- 
perately wounded, May 16, 1864, at the 
battle of Bermuda Hundred, (Green 
Plains,) Virginia, and was promoted 
to 2nd Lieut, in the Veteran Reserve 
Corps, and brevetted Captain for 
"gallant conduct on the field of bat- 
tle," having lost his left arm, which 
was amputated twice. Lucie C. mar- 
ried Norris H. Hannum, of Delaware 
County, and had issue, Annie H., d. 
in infancy ; Edgar E., drowned in the 
Delaware, Aug. 16, 1875, Jo^ii'' H. and 
Harry Huhn Hannum. 

Mrs. Sarah Ann Crosby Engle, some 
years after the death of Capt. Engle, 
married, Nov. 4, 1847, Charles Rob- 
ert Hawes, of New York, who died 
at Cincinnati, Ohio, from the effects 
of a railroad collision, Nov. 4, 1859, 
leaving surviving him, Charles Rob- 
ert, who was drowned at sea, Nov. 9, 
1869, by jumping overboard from the 
United States steamer "Idaho," in 
the Indian Ocean, in the delirium 
of brain fever, superinduced by the ex- 
citement he experienced while sick, 
the ship having been caught in one of 
those terrible cyclones, that visit the 
the ocean they were sailing through, 
"homeward bound." Margaretta, who 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



213 



married Henry Richardson ; son of 
Wm. H. and Catharine D., daughter 
of John Howard Hill, she died June 
2, 1876, in her sixtieth year. William 
Martin, and Catharine Davis Crosby 
Hawes. Mrs. Hawes and her children 
have great musical talents and excel- 
lent voices, which is a source of great 
delight in their social family circle. 

John P. Crosby, eldest son of Peirce 
and Christiana, born Dec. 17, 1795, 
was baptized John, and his name is so 
entered in the family Bible of my g. 
g. grandfather, John Crosby, which 
now belongs to me ;_ and his name 
is so given in the list of the Chester 
Lodge, No. 69, A. Y. M. ; but as there 
were several John Crosbys, he intro- 
duced the P(eirce) into his name, and 
his cousin John L. used the L(ane) in 
his, so as to distinguish them one from 
the other. 

John P. Crosby married Catharine, 
daughter of George and Mary Beale, 
of Washington, D. C, Oct. 20, 1820, 
and died Oct. 10, 1828, leaving issue: 
ist, Mary John, who married,yfrjY, her 
cousin, Nathaniel Davis Crosby, and 
some years after his death, James J. 
Miller, editor, of Lexington, Ky., by 
whom she has two children, Ada Beale 
and Walter Queen Miller. 2nd, Peirce 
Crosby, now a Commodore in the U. 
S. Navy, who married fii-st, Matilda, 
a daughter of John C. Boyer, of Lex- 
ington, Va. She died Sept. 26, 1853; 
secondly, Julia, daughter of Wm. P. 
Wells, who died May 3, 1866 ; and he 
married again, Miriam, dau. of Ben- 
jamin and Ann Gratz, of Lexington, 
Kentucky. They have issue, Annie 
Gratz, b. Jan. 13, 187T, ; Benjamin G., 
b. Jan. 18, 1872 ; Miriam, /;. Sept. 23, 
1874, and Peirce, b. Feb. 16, 1876. 

Ann Cornelia, third child of John P. 
and Catharine Crosby, married Charles 



William Raborg, of Chester. He died 
Dec. 23, 1859, leaving issue, Mary 
Hubley, (married to Dr. Alfred M. 
Owen, Oct. 13, 1874. He is an As- 
sistant Surgeon in the U. S. Navy ; 
entered the service May 20, 1869; a 
son of Dr. Joshua Owen, of Chester. 
They have issue a son, Frederick Cros- 
by, h. Aug. 17, 1875, ^t Rio de Ja- 
neiro, Brazil;) George Beale, William 
Anderson, Charles William, Catharine 
Beale, deceased, Peirce Crosby, and 
Walter Queen Raborg. 

Christiana, the fourth child of John 
P. and Catharine, married Walter 
Queen, now a captain in the U. S. 
Navy. The wife of George Beale of 
Washington, D. C, was Mary Dixon, 
of Virginia. Her sister, Elizabeth, 
was the wife and widow of Major 
William Anderson, of Chester. 

John Crosby (the Judge), owned the 
last two negro slaves held in Delaware 
County, "Old Aunt Rose," and her 
husband ' ' Sampson. ' ' After they were 
freed by law, this ancient couple lived 
in an old Log Cabin, on the left hand 
side of the road running from the old 
Queen's road, north-west from near 
Jacob Hewes' residence, below Leiper- 
ville, then called Ridley, to " Crosby's 
Mills." They died at an extreme old 
age. After their death, the Judge built 
a frame addition to the old cabin, and 
leased the house and about an acre of 
ground, to a worthy old workman in 
his employ, who had been his school- 
fellow in youth, John Terrance, for the 
term of his natural life, for the nomi- 
nal rent of d. penny a year. Here he 
lived to enjoy the generosity of his 
friend, the Judge, for many years. 

Sarah Ann Crosby, the widow of 
Robert P., of Ridley Creek quarries, 
married many years after his death, 
Capt. Thomas Robinson. I have fre- 



214 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



iiut'iuly heard it stated that he was at 
one thiie a vohinteer Lieutenant in the 
U. S. Navy, and on board the U. S. 
frigate President, and had the trumpet 
at the close of her action with the Brit- 
ish frigate Fhidymion. Capt. Stephen 
Decatur commanded the President in 
that action, which occurred Jan. 15, 
1 8 1 5 . Decatur made a wreck of the 
Endymion, then surrendered to the 
Tenedos and Pomone two other of H. 
B. M. frigates ; the President being 
surrounded by the British squadron off 
Long Island. The story, as I heard 
it, is confirmed in one of Brady's no- 
velettes, called " Forecastle Yarns," 
]). 16, and the yarn entitled " The 
Capture of the Frigate President," is 
given in better nautical phraseology 
than Cooper relates the events in his 
Naval HistoTy, 2 vol., 479. Cooper 
does not mention Robinson, however, 
but says "an order was sent below for 
John Templar Shubrick, 2d Lieuten' 
ant, to come on deck and take the 
trumpet," this order was caused by 
the I St Lieutenant being killed. The 
novelette states, that the first, fourth, 
and the fifth lieutenants being dead or 
wounded, Decatur sung out for Lieut. 
Gallagher, the 3d Lieutenant, to take 
the ti-umpet, but Robinson, a volun- 
teer, who is now in the Havre line, 
hearing the hail, came up from the gun- 
deck, and Decatur said, " take the 
trumpet, sir." So Robinson took the 
deck, &c. 

When Robert P. Crosby was living, 
he was one of the parties who furnished 
stone to the Delaware Breakwater, 
from his quarries on Ridley Creek, 
about 1830. The shallops in ascend- 
ing and descending the creek had to 
be propelled by long poles ; the creek 
then took a bend or curve which 
brought it (lose nj. to the old M( 11- 



vain quarries. This curve was called 
the "Bull-cod." By cutting it off, a 
long distance could be saved, the bend 
being so peculiar, that it came back to 
near where it .started from. So one 
dark stormy night, a large force of 
quarrymen, with shovels, picks, horses 
and carts, and plenty of whiskey, went 
to work, and in the morning the creek 
had a new channel, shortening the dis- 
tance to the Delaware, for the upper 
quarries, quite a quarter of a mile, 
but leaving the Mcllvain quarry some 
distance from the creek. This was 
thought a good joke, and the new 
channel was attributed to the storm, 
but everybody suspected who did it. 
Rough practical jokes were quite com- 
mon in those days. 

Robert P. Crosby, Jr., died in a 
decline at Chester, to which place 
the family removed after the sale of 
their Ridley property. His death was 
brought about by his indulgence in 
feats of strength, for which he was 
quite noted ; in one of them, throw- 
ing a heavy sledge hammer, used in 
the quarries, he burst a blood vessel. 
He was slightly, yet powerfully built. 
He was a gentleman of fine personal 
appearance, courteous manners, and a 
very agreeable companion, but being 
in comfortable circumstances never 
followed any useful occupation. He 
had an exquisite baritone voice, worth 
a fortune to an opera singer. He was 
a member of the First Troop of Phila- 
delphia City Cavalry. 

The Republican of Chester, on Sept. 
15, 1 861, in commenting upon the 
success of the expedition against Fort 
Hatteras, concludes thus : 

" The gallant conduct of Lieut. Peirce 
Crosby, is a source of high satisfaction to his 
numerous friends, not only here, but where- 
c\er he is known. According lo Maior(ienc- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



215 



ral Butler's report, he was foremost in the en- 
gagement, and did most essential service in 
landing our little army. Ever since the break- 
ing out of the war, in every case in which our 
navy was required, the name of Lieut. Crosby 
appears among the officers doing important 
active duty. He has made a record for him- 
self by his promptness, efficiency and daring. 
As a native of our town, we feel proud that 
we have furnished the navy with so brave and 
meritorious an officer." 

And again on Feb. 14, 1862, the 
editor of the same journal writes : 

" Lieut. Peirce Crosby of this borough, now 
in charge of the new gunboat Pinola, arrived 
at "Washington, D. C, on Saturday last, hav- 
ing passed the rebel batteries on the Potomac 
without damage. The Pinola is a screw pro- 
peller steamer, and is furnished with two en- 
gines of 500 horse power. (She was built at 
Chester.) She is now taking in her arma- 
ment at the Navy Yard in that city, and will 
join the squadron at once. Her commander 
is a brave fellow, and will give a good ac- 
count of himself, should he get into an en- 
gagement with the enemy." 

And in the Philadelphia Inquirer, 
of a later date, the prediction of Mr. 
Walter is verified in an article which 
I copy here : 

" Among the gallant officers who distin- 
guished themselves in the recent engagement 
below New Orleans, and whose acts are fa- 
vorably recorded in official and journalistic 
reports, is Lieut. Peirce Crosby, the comman- 
der of the Pinola. Lieut. Crosby, is a native 
of Delaware County, in this State, and entered 
the navy in 1838. At an early period in the 
history of the rebellion he was detailed upon 
important service in the Chesapeake Bay; 
subsequently distinguished in the lower waters 
of Virginia, and now by his creditable, brave 
and energetic movements, under the murderous 
fire of the enemy, has again brought his name 
prominently before the country. As an officer 
he is able and valorous, and as a man respected 
by all who know him. 

The following article of an earlier 
date, is headed " Capture of a Pirate," 



from a special dispatch to the Inquirer, 
Perry ville. May i, 1861. 

" The U. S. steamer, William B. Reaney, 
of Philadelphia, Capt. John Gallagher, arrived 
here to-day from Annapolis, having on board 
Senator (John) Sherman, Congressmen Grow 
and Grimes, and Captains Mercer, Grimes and 
Goldsborough, U. S. N., as passengers going 
North. On her trip up she took a prize, the 
steamer Lioness, of Baltimore, sailing under a 
roving commission from Col. Trimble, the 
secession leader of Baltimore. Her officers 
and crew were placed under arrest here, and 
her papers sent to the Secretary of War. An 
eye witness describes the incidents of the cap- 
ture as extremely interesting : The Reaney 
mounts four brass guns, and has a crew of 
thirty sailors, under Lieut. Crosby, U. S. Navy. 
During the engagement with tbe Lioness, the 
guns were served and fired by the Senators 
and Congressmen, their movements being di- 
rected by the naval officers. The men-o'- 
wars-men were jubilant over the capture of 
what they considered a piratical craft." 

From '■^ Hamnierslef s Records of 
Living Officers of the U. S. Navy,'' 
Philadelphia, 1870, p. 80, I gather the 
following information, to which I add 
my own knowledge, that 

" Peirce Crosby entered the navy as a mid- 
shipman, June 5, 1838. Passed Midshipman, 
May 20, 1844, dutingthe Mexican war, at To- 
baso and Tuspan, Schooner Petrel. Lieu- 
tenant, Sept. 3, 1853. During the summer of 
1 86 1, he served in the Chesapeake, keeping 



open 



the communication between Havre-de- 



Grace and Annapolis. Commander, Sept. 2, 
1862. Captain, May 27, 1863. In the latter 
part of 1 86 1, he was Naval Aid to Major Gene- 
ral Benjamin F. Butler, sloop Cumberland, 
N. A. B. squadron, 1 861, in the attack upon 
Forts Hatteras and Clark. Commanded the 
Pinola in 1862, at the bombardment and pas- 
sage of Forts Jackson and St. Philip, Chal- 
mette batteries and capture of New Orleans. 
Also at the bombardment and passage and re- 
passage of the rebel batteries at Vicksburg, and 
engagement with the ram Arkansas. He com- 
manded the iron clad Sangamon, in 1863. 
Fleet Captain of the North Atlantic Squadron 
in 1863. Commanded the Florida in 1863-4, 



216 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



in an engagement with the rebels at Mason- 
boro' Inlet, N. C, while destroying four 
blockade runners. In 1864-5, commanded- 
the U. S. S. Metacomet. Commanded the 
Metacomet in the attack on Mobile ; planned 
and constructed torpedo drag-nets, and su- 
perintended the removal of the torpedoes from 
Blakely River, and occupied Forts Huger and 
Tracey, on the night of their evacuation by 
the confederates. Commanded the U. S. S. 
vShamokin, S. A. Squadron, 1866-8. Captain, 
May 27, 1868." During the years 1863-4, 
Captain Crosby was commander of the U. S. 
steamer Keystone State, off Charleston, S. C, 
and captured a number of blockade runners, 
including the British steamer Lillian, with a 
valuable cargo on l)oard. 

In Frank Leslie' s Illustrated Maga- 
zine for 1861, will be found a spirited 
illustration of " The Naval Brigade, 
under the command of Lieut. Crosby, 
conveying the Federal troops over 
Hampton Creek, on the night of the 
8th of June, previous to the battle of 
Great Bethel, from a sketch by our 
special artist accompanying Gen. But- 
ler's command." Comd're Crosby, in 
1872, commanded the U. S. S. Pow- 
hatan, a vessel to which is attached sad 
memories for the writer ; for in her 
captain's cabin died, at midnight of 
July 16, 1868, in the Pacific Ocean, 
of the vomito negro, my youngest and 
dearly beloved brother. Dr. Ernest 
Dudley Martin, an Assistant Surgeon 
in the U. S. Navy, a young, handsome 
and talented fellow, being only 25 
years and 26 days old, and was buried 
at 12 meridian with naval honors, in 
the ocean. Rear Admiral Turner, 
wrote the same day to the Navy De- 
partment announcing his death, say- 
ing: "Having but a i^w days before 
come into the command of these forces, 
I did not know him personally, but it 
seems he was a noble fellow, who en- 
deared himself to his associates and 
messmates by many fine traits of char- 



acter that attract man to his fellow- 
man." 

I may say in conclusion, that Comd're 
Crosljy, in person bears evidence of 
his English descent, although his fam- 
ily has been here near 200 years. He 
is over six feet in height, well formed, 
weighing over 200 pounds, light hair, 
blue eyes and a tawny mustache, and 
with his high military air, he is the 
beau ideal of an American soldier, 
and possesses all the warm and gen- 
erous emotions that are the general 
characteristics of his noble profession. 

In old Deed book A, at West Ches- 
ter, p. 100, is a deed dated 7th day of 
7th month, called September, 1696, 
from John Cock of Ridlye, to Richard 
Crosby of Midle Towne, yeoman, for 
80 acres in Ridley, part of 280 in John 
Cock's possession, for ^30. The 80 
acres being on Crum Creek, and at the 
S. W. end of the whole tract. No 
doubt this is the property I have here- 
inbefore referred to as being occupied 
by Richard Crosby, the 2nd, who died 
1770, (all of whose descendants are 
dead, I believe,) and remained in pos- 
session of the family until about 1843, 
when it was sold to Samuel M. Leiper, 
and is now owned by John C. Leiper, 
his nephew. On this place there is an 
excellent quarry of fine, light gneiss ; 
while not 200 yards distant, on the 
Island Field, now owned by John O. 
Deshong, but lately by John Fairlamb 
Hill, there are quarries containing a 
very dark, close-grained granite ; the 
hardest stone in the county, and which 
can only be broken into irregular frag- 
ments. 

In regard to the relationship of the 
Crosbys, Fairlambs and Thomases ; I 
find that when John Fairlamb was mar- 
ried, in 1742, the near relatives signed 
the certificate thus : 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



217 



Jonathan Vernon, Ann Vernon, 

mother &= step-father to Susannah Fairhimb. 
John Crosby, Mary Thomas, 

Susannah Crosby, Grace Thomas, Jur., 

Richard Thomas, Jur., Sarah Button, &c. 

When Richard Thomas, Jr., was 
married, in 1739, John Crosby and 
John Crosby, Jr., signed among the 
relatives. Mary Thomas married John 
Harrison, in 1745, and John Fairlamb's 
is the fifth signature among the rela- 
tions. Again, Richard Thomas, Jr., in 
his will, dated Sept. 23, 1754, appoints 
his "cousin," John Fairlamb, one 
of his executors. The mother of the 
above Thomases, was Grace Atherton. 
I find no Atherton wills on record, 
and am not able to define further the 
relationship. 

Family tradition says, this family of 
Crosbys, are the descendants of Sir 
John Crosby, Alderman and Sheriff of 
London, and Member of Parliament, 
Warden of the Grocers' Company, and 
Mayor of the Staple of Calais, previous 
to 1 47 1. Knighf s History of Londo7i, 
318. He was knighted by Edward 
IV., in 1 47 1, on the occasion of the 
young King's entry into London, for 
his gallantry in the field, in resisting 
the attack made by the bastard Fal- 
conbridge on the city. See also Stow' s 
Annals of England, 1600, p. 706. Ed- 
ward was entertained for several days 
at Crosby Place, the residence of Sir 
John, who had loaned the young King 
large sums of money, without which 
he would never have been able to mount 
the throne. Sir John was one of the 
richest merchants of his time, a grocer 
and wool-stapler. He built Crosby 
Place for his residence in 146 1. It is 
said in history, to have been the most 
splendid private residence in the city 
of London. The more ancient parts 
of the present structure are genuine 
remains of the original building. 



Shakspeare, in Richard III., men- 
tions Crosby Place several times. In 
the third act, when Buckingham and 
Richard send Catesby to tamper with 
Hastings, Gloucester says : 

"Shall we hear from you, Catesby, 
ere we sleep ? 

Catesby. — You shall, my Lord. 

Gloucester. — At Crosby Place, there 
you shall find us both." 

It was then Gloucester's Palace, and 
he says to the murderers, commission- 
ed to destroy Clarence in the tower : 

"When you have done, repair to 
Crosby Place." 

I have heard it said, that about 1829, 
the family here were visited by an 
English attorney, who offered for a 
large fee, payable in advance, to re- 
cover for the family Crosby Place and 
other property, which had escheated, 
he said, for the want of heirs in Eng- 
land, to the Crown ; that in 1501, Sir 
John Crosby's executors sold the pro- 
perty, which was held on a lease from 
the Convent of St. Helen's; and in 
1538 upon the dissolution of Monas- 
teries by Henry VIII., the freehold 
reverted to the Crown. A family 
council was held by the male heirs, 
who were few in number. At the 
meeting my father informed his rela- 
tives that foreigners could not inherit 
or hold real estate in England. A 
piece of information which will, per- 
haps, save many Americans seeking 
estates in England, some money. It 
will be remembered in this connec- 
tion, that the late George Peabody, 
bought land in London and erected 
houses for a certain class of poor ; as 
soon as he died, steps were taken to 
escheat the property to the Crown, 
but the charity was preserved by act 
of Parliament. 

Sir John Crosby died in 1475. ^ 



218 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



beautiful tomb in tlie Cliurch of St. 
Helen's has been erected to his mem- 
ory and that of his wife. Upon the 
tomb may be still seen the recumbent 
figures of himself and his wife. The 
Knight is fully armed, but wears over 
his armor his Alderman's mantle, and 
around his neck a collar of suns and 
ro.ses, the badge of the House of York, 
to which he was so devoted. 

Crosby Place was purchased by Wil- 
liam Friem, in 1692. The family still 
own it. The great banqueting room, 
the throne room and council chamber, 
were restored in 1836. The expense 
being principally borne by a Miss 
Hacket. It is one of the buildings 
that escaped the ravages of the great 
fire in London. 

On the north front of Crosby Place 
next to St. Helen's, sculptured above 
the oriel, are the Arms and Crest of 
Sir John Crosby, viz. : ^r///.*-— Sable, 
a Chevron Ermine, between three 
Rams passant, Argent. Crest — A Ram 
trippant. The motto is not given on 
the building, but is " Tc Diice Liber- 
tas,^^ i. €., "Liberty under Thy guid- 
ance," meaning, of course, under the 
guidance of the Lamb of God. A 
good motto for the Crosby's of free 
America, whether they are the descen- 
dants of Sir John Crosby, or not. The 
name of Crossby, as the first settler in 
this country, Richard, at first rendered 
his name, indicates its origin, taken 
when men first began to use surnames 
in England. Thus, Richard Crossby, 
meant that Richard lived near the 
Cross-roads, or more likely near by 
where a Cross was set up ; a common 
thing in England once, as it is in many 
parts of Europe yet. The armorial 
bearings of one family of the Crosbys 
indicates this origin of the name: 
Arms, Gules, a Cross Or, within a bor- 



(1 1 1 re A rge n t . Crest, A H ol y Lamb pro - 
per, standard gules. Motto — "Nil 
Despcrandum,'" i. e., Never Despair. 
To render the description of the Arms 
in plain language, it means: On a red 
shield, such as warriors in ancient 
times wore on their left arm to protect 
their bodies from arrows, lances, &c., 
there was a golden Cross inside of a 
silver border around the Shield. The 
Crest was worn on the Helmet to dis- 
tinguish the wearer in battle, when the 
visor was down. The Crest above, a 
Holy lamb proper, means the lamb car- 
ries a golden Cross ; standard gules, 
a red banner, attached to the Cross. 
Upon the coast of Lancashire, England, 
about twenty miles from Liverpool, 
there is a place called Crossby. 

XXII. 

In organizing the Militia under the 
Act of Assembly of April 9, 1799, 
and numbering the regiments, it is 
said : "In the county of Delaware, the 
regiments commanded by Lieutenant- 
Colonel Levis, shall be No. 65 ; and 
by Lieutenant-Colonel Wilcocks, No. 
no." 

In 181 4, Chester furnished a company 
of volunteer infantry, which was under 
the command of Capt. Samuel Ander- 
son, M. D., who were mustered into 
service and marched to Camp Brandy- 
wine, but were afterwards returned to 
their homes without having faced the 
enemy ; not that they were not ready 
to do so, but none came. This com- 
pany was called ' ' The Mifiiin Guards, ' ' 
and was attached to the ist Regiment 
of Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, 
Col. Clement C. Biddle, commanding. 
The following is a copy of the muster- 
roll of the company, called in the re- 
cords the loth Company of the ist 



IIISTUKY UF CHESTER. 



219 



Regt. Penna. Vols., which arrived at 
Camp Brandywine, Sept. 21, 181 4, 
mustered out of service Dec. 6, 1814. 

Samuel Andekson, Captain. 
Fked. Shull, \st Lieutenant. 
D. A. Marshall, 2;!'/.zV«/. 
Wm. Biggern, Ensign. 

Sergeants. 
John Caldwell, William Evans, 

Benjamin Haskins, Henry Home. 

CorJ>orals. 
John Thompson, John Marshall, 

George Hawkins, Joseph Derrick, 

John Rowan. 



Privates. 



Samnel Edwards, 
Edward Minshall, 
Thomas Kitts, 
John Garrett, 
John Lambert, 
John Lloyd, 
Joseph Hall, 
David Fisher, 
Joseph Martin, Jr., 
John Hawkins, 
Levi D. Martin, 
Thomas Parsons, 
Lazarus Martin, 
Daniel Broomall, 
Robert Beatty, 
Thomas Pedrick, 
James Burns, 
Jeremiah Brown, 
Thomas Painter, 
William Beatty, 
James Evans, 
Thomas P. Smith, 
Charles Lear, 
John Stevenson, 
John Pyewell, 
William Geary, 
William H. Marshall 
John M 



James Lock, 
Daniel Mitchell, 
John McKee, 
John Martin, 
Joseph Wilkinson, 
Leonard Cole, 
William Cummins, 
Thomas D. Barnard, 
Thomas Bowers, 
Charles Justis, 
James Cleary, 
John Dunant, 
Richard G. Martin, 
Charles Snowdon, 
Joseph Pfill, 
William Lindsay, 
George Caldwell, 
David Cummins, 
James Bratton, 
Aaron Morton, 
Joseph Hibbert, 
John Hansell, 
Joseph T. Jones, 
William Torrance, 
John Dermont, 
William Grubb, 
John Bradford, 
artin. No. 2. 



This company and the "Delaware 
County Fencibles," from the vicinity 
of Darby, also well officered, were com- 
posed of some of the best men of the 
county, entirely volunteers — men able 
and willing to do their duty, and like 
militia and drafted men, they were 
called into service to defend the ap- 
proaches to Philadelphia, against a 
threatened invasion of the British, 
with whom we were then at war. But 
fortunately no actual hostilities occur- 
red on the Delaware ; but the appear- 
ance of the British fleet in the Chesa- 



peake, aroused the citizens of Penn- 
sylvania to the adoption of measures 
for defence. Dr. Smith says, p. 351, 
that "in Oct., 1814, an encampment 
of militia was formed back of Marcus 
Hook, on the high grounds, number- 
ing several thousand men, drafted from 
the south-eastern part of the State. Of 
these, Delaware County furnished two 
full companies of 100 men, upon two 
separate drafts, the second of which 
was considered illegal. The first com- 
pany was convened at the "Three 
Tuns," now the Lamb Tavern, in 
Springfield, on Oct. 14, and marched 
to Chester. Its officers were, Capt. 
William Morgan ; ist Lieut. Aaron 
Johnson ; 2nd Lieut. Charles Carr ; 
Ensign Samuel Hayes. This com- 
pany remained at Chester for two 
weeks, waiting for their camp equi- 
page, before repairing to the encamp- 
ment at Marcus Hook. During this 
time the men occupied the meeting- 
houses and other public buildings. 
The second company arrived at camp 
about two weeks later. It was com- 
manded by Capt. John Hall; Ensign 
Robert Dunn. John L. Pearson, of 
Ridley, held the office of Lieut. Col. 
in the regiment to which the above 
two companies belonged. These com- 
panies were mustered out of service, 
Dec. 24, 1814. 

The "Delaware County Fencibles," 
consisted of 91 men, officers, non- 
commissioned officers, and privates. 
The company was equipped and mus- 
tered into service Sept. 21, 181 4, 
marched to Camp Marcus Hook, on 
the 23d, remained there one month, 
then marched to Camp Dupont, and 
from thence on Nov. 16, were march- 
ed to Camp Cadwalader. On the 29th 
of Nov. they marched by the way of 
New Castle to Philadelphia, where 



220 



HISTORY OF ClIKSTKN 



they arrived Dec. 2(1, and wtTc mus- 
tered out of service on the 6th. This 
organization of vohmtecrs was called 
the i2th Company of the isl Kegt. of 
Volunteer Infontr\ . I'lom a work c ail- 
ed, "A Brief Sketch of the Military 
Operations on the Delaware," 1820, 
I extract a copy of the muster-roll of 
the Fencibles, as follows : 

James Sekkill, Ca/>t<tiii. 
G. G. Leipek, 1st LieiUenant. 
J. Sekrill, Jr., 2(^ ZiV«^. 
George Serrill, Ensign. 

Sergeants. 
John L. Pearson, David Rose, Jr., 

Richard R. Jones, Joseph Oakford. 

Corporals . 
Henry Wood, Andrew Urian, 

Joseph Shalicross, John C. Farrell. 

Prh'ates. 

James Warner, Thomas Ash, 

John Stroop, Peter Long, 

Robert Homes, Cornelius Macky, 

Enoch Bonsall, David Smart, 

Thomas J. Martin, Nathan Hayes, 

Edward Ormsby, David Bonsall, 

John Wctherill, Isaac Brooks, 

Matthew McNutty, Daniel McGinely, 

Casper Trites, Julm Stattoii, 

Jesse Z. Paschall, John Hahn, 

John Rivcly, George Ross, 

Daniel Smith, Thomas Williams, 

John Dobbins, Moses Wells, Jr., 

(ieorge Williamson, Thomas McCullough, 

William Fines, William Smith, 

Reuben Bonsall, Moses Adams, 

Lewis B. Stanart, Andrew Rively, 

Clement Hanse, John McCleaster, 

Charles Bonsall, William Glover, 

Charles Gibson, Joshua Bonsall, 

Charles Attmorc, Samuel Bonsall, Jr., 

Miles McSwainy, Thomas Bonsall, 

Aaron Helms, Samuel Bonsall, 
Cadwalader M. Helms, Samuel Palmer, 

Andrew Noblit, Thomas Merrion, 

Andrew Engberg, Joseph Hooper, 

Marshall Siddens, Robert Clark, 

Thomas Bonsall, John M'Gilton, 

William McCormick, Samuel Bunting, 

Samuel Bonsall, Philip Painter, 

John Brown, George Myers, 

Samuel Palmer, Davis Smith, 

Evan Bonsall, Clement Smith, 

Thomas Merrion, William Cox, 

John Luskin, J„hn Shaw, 

Joseph Hooper, Geo. W. Johnson, 

Jacob Duey, William Jones, 

Robert Clark, Ihomas P. Ash, 

Jonathans. Bonsall, Jonathan Quicksall, 

William Kinsey, Thomas Fleming, 

William Helms, Wm. Humphreys, 

John M'Lain, John Frazier. 
John Myers. 



It is not, perhaps, generally known 
at this day, that a regiment or battal- 
ion of colored troops was called into 
the service of the United States in the 
war of 1812. Thompson Westcott, in 
his history of Philadelphia, now being 
published (1876) in iht Sunday Dis- 
patch, in alluding to the events of that 
war, states the fact, and gives the 
cretlit of the first efforts to raise col- 
ored troops to Louis Merlin, of Phila- 
delphia, and Captain Peter P. Walter, 
Capt. Co. I, 32nd Reg't U. S. Army, 
and Acting Inspector General of the 
Third Military District ; the father 
of Y. S. Walter, the editor of the 
Delaware County Republicaji, of Ches- 
ter. Beyond the fact given in the 
Dispatch, the family of Capt. Walter 
have no record of the enlistment re- 
ferred to; the papers relating thereto, 
having all been destroyed by the burn- 
ing of the Records of the War Depart- 
ment at Washington, except a few, 
among which is a letter given in the 
Dispatch, from Capt. Walter, to the 
Secretary of War, dated Aug. 13, 
1814, tendering his services to recruit 
a regiment of blacks in Pennsylvania. 
There is an interesting article in the 
Republican, of March 31, 1876, on 
this subject. Gen. Robert Patterson 
informed me, that only a company, or 
part of one, was formed in Philadel- 
phia at the time, and they never left 
the city; that there was no negro re- 
giment in the war of 181 2-14. 

I copy from the Upland Union, the 
following notice: — "Troop Orders. 
The Delaware Co. Troop will meet 
iji parade order, blue pantaloons and 
nine rounds of blank cartridge, at the 
house of Evans Way, in Nether Provi- 
dence, on Saturday the 27th inst., at 
10 o'clock A. M. Punctual and gene- 
ral attendanc c is re(|uested. By order. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



221 



— Evans Way, ist Sergt. Oct. 12, 
1832." 

On making application to Edward 
H. Engle, Jr., for the minute-book 
of the troop, I was informed by him 
that it had been destroyed, but that 
Evans Way, who was still living (1873), 
said the troop was formed during the 
war of 181 2 with Great Britain, and 
Dr. Joseph Wilson, of Springfield, 
was the captain. About 1820, the 
troop was re-organized, and the fol- 
lowing officers elected : John Hinkson, 
Capt. ; Samuel M. Lei per, \st Lieut. ; 
John Wells, 2nd Lieut. ; Evans Way, 
1st Sergt., and George Kirk, Co/ur 
Sergt. At that time the troop num- 
bered about 57 members, officers and 
privates, all told ; and generally mus- 
tered about 45 men at exercise and 
parade, which took place five or six 
times a year. For about three years, 
the troop formed part of the first squad- 
ron of Montgomery, Chester and Del- 
aware County Cavalry. In 1830, the 
troop became dissatisfied with their 
officers, and an election was held with 
the following result : Samuel M. Lei- 
per, Capt. ; Edward H. Engle, \st 
Lieut. ; John Wells, 2d Lieut. ; Evans 
Way, \st Sergt., and George Kirk, 
Color Sergt. The company only met 
three or four times after this ; and 
finally disbanded in 1836, by mutual 
consent. The country had been at 
peace so long, all interest in military 
matters became lost by our people, 
especially those residing in the coun- 
try, who do not feel the need of ex- 
citement like city people, and where 
there are but few opportunities for the 
display of fine uniforms and military 
evolutions. I remember seeing the 
troop parade once in Chester ; I must 
have been very young, but have a dis- 
tinct recollection of the tall, thin form 



of Samuel M. Leiper, clad in uniform, 
with his reddish hair and whiskers, 
mounted on a sorrel horse, and I also 
recall Evans Way, as ist Sergt. My 
recollection is, that the troop wore 
Shakoes, with yellow pompoons com- 
ing over towards the front, and had 
yellow trimmings to their coats, which 
were of blue cloth, with brass bullet 
buttons, and yellow stripes down the 
legs of their blue pantaloons, with 
black bear-skins over the holsters of 
their pistols, and rode horses of all 
colors ; but I have seen since, so many 
uniforms in and out of the service, I 
may be mistaken. At the time I saw 
the parade of the troop, Evans Way 
kept, I think, the tavern opposite the 
old Court House, and the troop parad- 
ed in front of it, or between the two 
buildings, in the street. 

The late John K. Zeilin, a former 
resident of Chester and a member of the 
Delaware County Bar, and I, had a long 
conversation about Chester matters 
some years ago. He said, I will hunt 
you up the minute-book of the Penn- 
sylvania Artillerists. John Richards 
was captain ; so was your father ; after- 
wards, I was the captain, and was so at 
the time of the great Riot in '32 or' 33. 
I think it was on the 4th of July. In 
those days of the Delaware Breakwater, 
large numbers of the Irish quarrymen 
came into town on holidays for a fro- 
lic ; on this occasion the ladies of old 
St. Paul's Church were having a Fait 
in the old Court House ; the Irishmen 
thought it was a Donnybrook affair ; 
they went in and seized the articles on 
the tables, and insulted the ladies. The 
gentlemen of the town were at dinner 
at Thurlow's tavern, celebrating the 
day. The ladies sent for them ; your 
father and Mr. Samuel Edwards, the 
Burgess, Archibald T. Dick and others. 



222 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



made addresses to the mob and quieted 
them. They were John L. Crosby's 
men, and knew your father. I then 
commanded the Pennsylvania Artiller- 
ists, and got 15 men together at the 
Court House, and after your father 
left, the crowd, urged on by their ring- 
leader, became very threatening, as we 
had arrested four of their number and 
lodged them in jail ; finally I ordered 
" charge bayonets," and we droVe the 
crowd out of town and nearly to Rid^ 
ley. Those arrested were afterwards 
tried and convicted. He also said, I 
have one of the old church booksj 
called the Minutes of the Delaware 
County Bible Society. Your father, 
William Martin, was Warden of St; 
Paul's for over twenty years. I was 
one of the vestry for some time. We 
belonged to the Bible Society, the Fire 
Company, the old Fishing Club, &:c. 

The Bank of Delaware County, lo- 
cated at Chester, was incorporated by 
Act of Assembly of March 21, 18145 
and still continues in successful opera- 
tion. In 1864, the organization of the 
institution was changed from a State 
to a National Bank, under the provi- 
sions of the Act of Congress, and its 
present corporate title is *' The Dela- 
ware County National Bank." Its 
banking house is situated at the south- 
west corner of Third and Market Sts. 
Its officers have been : 



Jonas Preston, 
James Newbold, 
Peircc Crosby, 
John Kerlin, 
Jesse J. Maris, 



Frederick J. Hinkson, 
Samuel A. Crozer, 
Edmund Pennell, 
David Trainer, 
Robert H. Crozer. 



Cashieis. 
Preston Eyre, James G. McCollin, 

Charles S. Folwell, William Taylor, 

Frederick J. Hinkson, Caleb Emlen, 
J. Howard Roop. 

In the year 1864, the First National 
Bank of Chester, was incorporated un- 



der the provisions of the Act of Con- 
gress of June 3, 1864. Abraham R. 
Perkins was elected as its first Presi- 
dent, and served until the year 1871, 
when he resigned, and John Larkin, 
Jr., was elected to fill the vacancy. 
William Taylor, the former Cashier of 
the old county bank, has been the 
Cashier of the new corporation ever 
since its organization. 

About 1815, the necessity of having 
some protection at Chester for ves- 
sels navigating the river in winter, 
becoming apparent, an Act of Assem- 
bly was obtained, and passed March 
li, 1816, recorded in Law Book XV, 
p. 487, &:c., appropriating ^10,935.32, 
"to be employed for the erection of 
piers for the river Delaware, at the 
Borough of Chester," and David Por- 
ter, Joseph Engle and William Gra- 
ham were appointed Commissioners to 
do and perform the several acts, &c., 
and " shall cause to be erected, placed 
and sunk in the said river Delaware, 
at the Borough of Chester, two or more 
good and sufficient piers, for the secu- 
irity of vessels navigating the said river, 
and shall also cause to be built and con- 
structed good and sufficient wharves, to 
tie so connected with the said piers as 
to afford a safe and easy landing for 
vessels coming to at the same ; and for 
this purpose they shall have power 
to employ suitable workmen, and ob- 
tain cessions to the Commonwealth of 
ground within the said Borough of 
Chester, necessary for the erection and 
construction of such wharves and piers. 
Provided, That the said cessions be ob- 
tained without any consideration from 
the Commonwealth." The Commis- 
sioners not to receive any compensa- 
tion, but to give bond, &:c. The work 
to be commenced in one year and 
completed within five years. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



223 



By the 13th section of the Act of 
the 24th of March, 181 7, Laws of Pa., 
(published by John Bioren, 1822), vol. 
6, chap. 4437, the additional sum of 
$8000 was " appropriated to be em- 
ployed in the erection of two addi- 
tional piers, and otherwise completing 
the harbor on the river Delaware, at 
the Borough of Chester, in Delaware 
County, so as to make the harbor safe 
and commodious for vessels of large 
size navigating said river, and the Trea- 
surer is hereby required, whenever the 
said work shall be recommenced, to 
pay to the Commissioners hereinafter 
named, or their order, one-half of the 
said sum, and the remainder thereof 
on the first day of June, 181 8, or so 
soon thereafter as the said work shall 
be completed ; and Joseph Engle, Wil- 
liam Anderson and William Graham," 
were appointed Commissioners to su- 
perintend the application of the money 
in the manner prescribed in the Act 
of March nth, 181.6, the work to 
be proceeded with within one year, 
and completed within three years there- 
after, else the amount appropriated to 
revert to the State. It is to be pre- 
sumed that the conditions of the Act 
were complied with, as the piers were 
finished and ceded to the United States, 
on condition that the Government keep 
the work in good order. 

The ''Upper Pier," as it is called, 
was ceded to the State by the follow- 
ing deed: 

"This Indenture, made the 20th clay of 
June, 181 6, between Davis Bevan, of the Bo- 
rough of Chester, in the county of Delaware, 
and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 
gentleman, of the one part, and the said Com- 
monwealth of Pennsylvania of the other part, 
Whereas, by an Act making an appropriation 
for the erection of piers in the river Delaware, 
at the Borough of Chester, in Delaware Coun- 
ty, David Porter, Joseph Engle, and William 



Graham, Esqs., are authorized to obtain ces- 
sions to the Commonwealth of ground within 
the said Borough of Chester, necessary for the 
erection and construction of the wharves and 
piers, provided the said cessions be obtained 
without any consideration from this Common- 
wealth, and whereas the wharf lying on the 
north-east side of High Street, in the said Bo- 
rough of Chester, commonly called " Richard- 
son's wharf," has by good and sufficient assur- 
ances in the law become vested in fee simple 
in the said Davis Bevan, who is desirous to 
aid the public interest by ceding his title thereto 
to the Commonwealth, for the purpose afore- 
said : Now this indenture witnesseth, that the 
said Davis Bevan in consideration of the pre- 
mises, and also in consideration of the local 
advantages which will arise from the contem- 
plated work, hath granted, bargained, sold, 
ceded, surrendered and confirmed, and by 
these presents doth grant, bargain, sell, cede, 
surrender and confirm unto the said Common- 
wealth of Pennsylvania, all that the above- 
mentioned wharf, situated, lying and being in 
the said Borough of Chester, on the north-east 
side of High Street, and extending from low 
water mark on the river Delaware to the fast 
land, being in breadth from low water mark 
to a buttonwood tree standing on the north- 
east side of said wharf about twenty-one feet, 
and thence to the fast land opposite the north 
end of a stone stable of the breadth of twenty 
feet, measuring from the south-west side of 
said wharf, as the foundation now exists. To- 
gether with all and singular the logs and bolts, 
stone and other material, belonging to and 
connected with said wharf, to have and to 
hold the same for the purposes aforesaid with 
the appurtenances to the said Commonwealth 
of Pennsylvania forever ; provided always, 
nevertheless, that unless the said Commission- 
ers shall proceed to carry on the contemplated 
work within the period mentioned in the afore- 
said recited law, then this Indenture and the 
estate hereby granted and ceded shall cease 
and become void. And the said Davis Bevan 
doth reserve to himself and to his heirs the 
right, liberty and privilege to pass to, upon, 
and from the said wharf, with free ingress, 
egress and regress, to and for him and his heirs, 
and his and their servants and workmen, with 
horses, carts and carriages at all times and sea- 
sons for the loading and hauling of goods and 
merchandise or other ])roperty, and for ship- 



224 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



ping and sending away the same." Witness, 
Samuel Edwards and Isaac Eyre. Recorded 
in Bool< M., p. 280. 

The "Lower Pier," was ceded l)y 
the following instrument: 

" 7<> a// people to 7C'/iom these presents sliall 
come : I, Ephraim Pearson, of Ciiester, Dela- 
ware County, send greeting, and whereas by 
an Act making an appropriation for the erec- 
tion of piers in the river Delaware," &c., as 
set forth in the former conveyance: "Now 
know yc, lliat I, the said Ephraim Pearson, do 
hcreliy grant, transfer and cede to the Com- 
monwealth of Pennsylvania, all that piece of 
ground, known by the name of " Richardson's 
Lower Wharf," lying on the river Delaware, 
between the mouth of Chester Creek and Front 
Street continued and extending from high water 
mark to low water mark, being in the Borough 
of Chester aforesaid. To have and to hold 
the sam-j, to the said Commonwealth forever, 
for the purpose of erecting and constructing 
wharves and piers, and for no other purpose ; 
provided that if the said Commissioners shall 
not make use thereof for the purpose aforesaid, 
within the time limited by the above recited 
Act for finishing their work, then this cession 
to-be void." Dated May 6, 181 6. Witnessed 
by William Eyre and John G. Hoskins, and 
recorded in Book M., p. 281, &c. 

To the right of the causeway leading 
out to the lower pier, there is a strip 
of land that is exposed at low water. 
To whom does it belong? The exact 
boundaries of the land given are not 
stated, so it is to be taken for granted 
only what ground was necessary for 
the ])urposesof the piers was conveyed, 
or at most only the then existing Rich- 
ardson's lower wharf. 

On the 9th of Nov., 1819, the first 
newspaper ever printed in Delaware 
County, was issued by Butler & Worth- 
ington, at Chester. It was called the 
Post Boy. It was a weekly, anci the 
size of the paper was 15;^ by 9)^ in- 
ches, printed on four pages of four 
columns each, with large tyi)e. All 
the work on the pajicr, including edit- 



ing and distributing it over the country 
by i^ost-ridcrs was done by Mr. Worth- 
ington and William W. Doyle, the 
latter quite a young lad. Edmund 
Pennell, the late President of the De- 
laware County National Bank, says : 
"The Post Boy was printed in the 
building now No. 11 S. Third Street, 
then owned by William Eyre, and be- 
ing the next house south of the garden 
of the bank — upon which Dr. Foley, 
and Dyer & Appleby, have lately erect- 
ed buildings," and that he set up type 
in the office sometimes for his amuse- 
ment. After the Post Boy had been 
jHiblished for six years, the establish- 
ment was sold out, the newspaper and 
all, to Joseph M. G. Lescure, who 
changed the title of the paper to tliat 
of the "Upland Union," and in- 
creased the size of the pages. Mr. Les- 
cure edited it and continued to issue 
it until 1838, when he disposed of it 
to Joseph Williams and Charles F. 
Coates, who soon afterwards sold out 
to Alexander Nesbit, from whom it 
was bought by Alexander McKeever, 
who continued its publication until 
1852, when the paper was discontin- 
ued for want of patronage. Mr. Les- 
cure and his family left Chester after 
he sold his interest in the " Upland 
Union." 

Mr. Williams, was a man of more 
than ordinary abilities, an agreeable 
and accomplished gentleman, and the 
life of every social circle that he 
entered. He was a good lawyer, a 
good poet, good political speaker, 
an excellent musician — playing remar- 
kably well on the fife, violin, drum 
and clarionette, and sang delightfully. 
He was appcjintcd by the President, 
a Judge of Iowa, and while tipon the 
bench, sought to enlist as a private 
in the Mexican war. After theTcrri- 



HISTOIIY OF CHESTEli. 



225 



tory became a State, Mr. Williams was 
made Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court. On one occasion, while on a 
visit to Philadelphia, he called on Chief 
Justice Black, at Jones' Hotel, who 
chanced to be absent from his room. 
Seating himself at the table, he dashed 
off the following verse to his old friend 
and school-fellow: 

" From the Chief Justice of Iowa to the Chief 
Justice of Pennsylvania, greeting : 

"Oh, Jerry, dear Jerry, Fve found you at last, 
And memory fondly reverts to the past, 
Cues hack to old Somerset's mountain of snow. 
When you were but Jerry and I was but Joe." 

Many of the old residents of Chester 
can remember how touchingly he sang 
"Black Eyed Susan." 

During the Presidential contest of 
1828, William Russell, then a resident 
of Chester, commenced the publica- 
tion of a weekly newspaper, called The 
Weekly Visitor, with Strange N. Palmer, 
late a Judge of the Courts at Pottsville, 
Pa., as the editor. This paper was 
Whig in politics, and supported John 
Quincy Adams for President. At this 
time the Upland Union became Demo- 
cratic; it had previously been neutral 
in politics. Messrs. Russell & Palmer 
soon quarreled, and the Visitorvfas. sold 
to a party of thirty gentlemen, support- 
ers of Mr. Adams, who called them- 
selves '■'National Republicans,''' for 
whom Mr. Palmer still continued to 
edit the paper until the end of the 
Presidential campaign, when it passed 
into the hands of Thos. Eastman, who 
published it till 1832 ; when the Week- 
ly Visitor was discontinued, and the 
materials were sold to Y. S. Walter, 
who removed them to Darby, and 
commenced there on the 31st day of 
Aug., 1833, the publication o{t\\Q Del- 
aware County Republican. In Nov., 
1 841, Mr. Walter removed his resi- 



dence and establishment to Chester, 
where that paper has been published 
regularly and weekly ever since. It 
contains six times the matter that the 
Post Boy used to contain in its col- 
umns, and is issued upon the same 
terms per year. In 1875, M^- Walter 
erected on Market, between 2nd and 
3rd Streets, a handsome brick build- 
ing in which to carry on his printing 
business. It is replete with all the 
modern improvements, and is the grat- 
ifying evidence of his success in life. 

In 1835, during the contest in this 
State over the office of Governor, a 
newspaper named The Delaware Coun- 
ty Democrat, was published and edited 
by Caleb .Pierce, the well-known Ches- 
ter school-master. It was a weekly pa- 
per, advocating Mr. Muhlenberg for 
Governor, and had a brief existence. 
The Upland Union at the same time 
supported George Wolf for Governor. 
Both papers were Democratic. 

In 1843, a small newspaper, singu- 
larly named The Chariot, was printed 
and issued by Edward E. Flavill and 
Mr. Jackson, advocating temperance 
principles. It had but a brief run. 
• During 1848, a small comic paper 
was published and issued in Chester, 
called The Owl. It was printed se- 
cretly at irregular intervals, by un- 
known persons, and distributed at 
night. Its articles were rather per- 
sonal, and its numbers ahvays created 
some excitement. 

In May, 1850, S. E. Cohen, com- 
menced to issue a monthly paper, call- 
ed The Chester Herald. On the 13th 
of Sept., in the same year, he changed 
it to a weekly, but soon discontinued 
it entirely. 

In Oct., 1856, a paper called. The 
Upland Union a?id Delaware Cou?ity 
Democrat, was started bv T- G. Mich- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



clon, it had a short hTe of a few weeks 1 
only. 

During 1857-8, a small literary news- 
paper, named The Evening Star, arose 
irregularly, under the auspices of the 
Washington Literary Society, an asso- 
ciation of young men formed for the 
purpose of literary improvement. 

On Saturday, Oct. 5, 1867, The 
Delaware County Democrat, a weekly 
newspaper, was established in Chester, 
by D. B. Overholt. His interest was 
soon thereafter purchased by Dr. J. L. 
Forwood, who edited it for some time, 
then sold out to Col. William Cooper 
Talley. In 1876 Col. Talley sold out 
his interest in the paper to John B. 
McCay, who shortly afterwards trans- 
ferred it to William Orr, the publisher 
of the Democratic Pilot, and the two 
were consolidated, and called " The 
Democrat and Pilot. ' ' When the De- 
mocratic Pilot's materials were sold 
in 1872, Mr. Orr said, the name did 
not pass with the materials, and in 
1874, resumed the issue of his paper 
under that name, which he continued 
until it became merged in the Demo- 
crat. 

On Oct. 27, 1866, The Chester Ad- 
vertiser was issued by John Spencer 
and Dr. William Taylor, and contin- 
ued into a second year, when its pub- 
lication was suspended. Mr. Spencer 
purchased the interest of Dr. Taylor 
in the business, and soon after began 
the publication of The Chester Advo- 
cate ; the first number of which ap- 
peared June 6, 1868. It is now called 
' ' The Delaware County Advocate. ' ' 

A weekly paper, called The Indepen- 
dent, was established in Chester, in 
June, 1869, by Arnold & James. It 
was afterwards conducted by James & 
Sheilds, then by James & Co. Its 
jniblication is now suspended. 



On Saturday, June 3, 1871, The 
Democratic Pilot, a weekly paper, was 
first issued by William Orr and H. M. 
Bowman. Bowman shortly after sold 
out his interest to Thomas Mullen. In 
June, 1872, John Mullen purchased at 
.sheriff's sale the materials of the oflice, 
and began the publication of The Ches- 
ter Pilot. Subsequently, Mullen sold 
his interest to J. T. Desilver & Co., 
and on Thursday, Nov. 27, 1873, the 
new proprietors issued the first number 
of The Delaware County Mai 1,-^x16. on 
Nov. 27, 1876, it was sold, and merged 
into \\\Q Delaware County Paper. The 
latter journal was established in May, 
1876, and is published by John Mc- 
Feeters, and edited by Henry Graham 
Ashmead, Esq., and is now known as 
The Delaware County Paper and Mail. 

On the ist day of June, 1872, the 
first number of the first daily news- 
paper that was ever issued in Chester, 
made its appearance. It was called 
The Evening News, and on June 17, 
the name was changed to Chester Even- 
ing Neivs. It was edited and owned 
by F. Stanhope Hill, who after a few 
months' experience sold out the con- 
cern, on Oct. I, 1872, to William A. 
Todd, who still continues to issue the 
paper. Mr. Todd had previously been 
the Receiving Teller of the First Na- 
tional Bank of Chester, from its organ- 
ization. 

In old times, before the days of rail- 
roads, and before our postal facilities 
for the delivery of letters and papers 
became so common, the newspapers 
of the day were delivered by carriers, 
who rode around the country on horse- 
back, with the papers in large leather 
saddle bags, and in rain or sunshine, 
ice or snow, we used to look for our 
carrier to make his accustomed weekly 
visit. The dam]) paper was received 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



227 



and carefully dried before the fire, and 
its contents devoured with a pleasure 
that has no experience in the present 
day. We say old times, yet it was but 
a k\v years ago. In the city of Stock- 
holm, Sweden, there is a daily news- 
paper now in its 302nd year, with a 
daily is.sue of 15,000 copies. So al- 
though the Delaware County Republi- 
can is in its 44th year, it is yet a young 
paper ; but its editor is a veteran in 
^ journalism. 

On May, 3, 1876, a Republican pa- 
per entitled, " The Public Press,'" 
owned and edited by Thomas Hig- 
gans and Robert Simpson, was first 
published in Chester; subsequently 
Mr. H. withdrew, and Mr. S. contin- 
ued the paper for 15 numbers ; then he 
removed to Darby, issued one num- 
ber more there, and abandoned the 
enterprise. 

In Sept., 1876, " The Daily Times;' 
an afternoon daily newspaper, was 
established in Chester, by Prince & 
Stow, and edited by John Hudson, 
the founder of the West Chester Jef- 
fersonian. 

XXIII. 

Previous to, or about the year 1819, 
a number of young gentlemen of Ches- 
ter and its vicinity, formed asocial cir- 
cle called " The Bachelors' Club," 
as their revised Constitution (a copy of 
wh i ch I have) says : " /« order to promote 
the happiness of Society ;' &c. A very 
commendable undertaking, although, 
as their Constitution shows, it was more 
evidently formed for promoting their 
own enjoyment. There is no list of 
the names of the members given, and 
only one minute of their proceedings 
has been preserved. It is as follows, 
viz.: " Chester, Dec. nth, 1819. At 
at a special meeting of the Bachelors' 



Club, held according to public notice 
at Bachelors' Hall, on the nth instant, 
1819 — the President and Secretary not 
beingpresent — John J. Richards, Esq., 
was called to the chair, and William 
Martin appointed Secretary. The fol- 
lowing resolutions were then adopted, 
viz. : Resolved, That the style of the 
President be hereafter, the Grand Coe- 
lebs ; the Vice-President, the Knight 
'Bachelor, and the Secretary, the Knight 
of the Records. The Society then pro- 
ceeded to elect the following officers 
for the ensuing year : John J. Rich- 
ards, Esq., Grand Coelebs ; John Will- 
cox, Knight Bachelor ; William Mar- 
tin, Knight of the Records ; George 
Richards Grantham, ^?,(i., Judge Ad- 
vocate, and Dr. Ellis C. Harlan, Trea- 
surcr. 

Resolved, That J. J. Richards, Dr. 
E. C. Harlan, G. R. Grantham, and 
William Martin, be a Committee to 
revise the Constitution of the Society. 

Resolved, That Joshua A. Pearson be 
admitted a member of this Society." 

The revised Constitution is very fun- 
ny, but is scarcely interesting enough 
to warrant its insertion here. The 
above young gentlemen and their as- 
sociates, seem to have amused them- 
selves by holding what they called 
" Flaxseed Courts." I have a record 
of the proceedings of one such Court, 
" Held in the Borough of Chester, in 
the month of Rains, 1820. The cause 
before the Court being a suit for a Di- 
vorce. The names of the parties, Mr. 
and Mrs. Little Jonny Pringle, are ot 
course fictitious, and time has robbed 
the details of their point. . Barney was 
the Judge Advocate, and Martin the 
Attorney. The certified copy of the 
record (?) which I have, was made in 
the month of Flowers, 1820, and Jonny 
Jumpup was the Clerk of the Court. 



228 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



These may appear as very tri\ial mat- 
ters, but they are given, as showing 
how our fathers amused themselves in 
their leisure hours in a country town. 

On Washington's birthday and on 
the Fourth of July, annually, in those 
days, it appears to have been the cus- 
tom of the substantial residents of Ches- 
ter and its vicinity, to celebrate those 
occasions by grand public dinners ; 
speeches were made at such times, and 
patriotic toasts were drunk. I have 
copies of several speeches made at such 
dinners, and of the toasts drunk at many 
different celebrations in Chester, be- 
ginning about the year 1795, up to the 
year 1820. 

In 1824, the last public execution of 
a criminal in the county of Delaware, 
was the hanging of Wellington, which 
took place on Mrs. Bartholomew's 
farm, at Carterville, near Chester, for 
murder. The circumstances attend- 
ing the commission of the crime are 
set forth in full on page 187. The 
scenes at his execution are represented 
to have been of the most revolting 
character. Most of the spectators 
being of the lowest class of the com- 
munity, from all parts of the adjacent 
counties and neighboring towns and 
cities. The majority of these got 
gloriously drunk, and indulged in nu- 
merous free fights. Thimble-riggers, 
gamblers of all kinds and pickpockets, 
plied their several avocations undis- 
turbed ; the civil authorities being pow- 
erless to prevent the lawless occurrences 
that took place. 

Those who have witnessed at a later 
period, the scenes at Chester on a race- 
day, and the occurrences on the roads 
in its vicinity after the day's races were 
over, can form some conception of 
what happened at the execution of 
Welli ngton . See also Jud<^e Darliiii:;- 



foii's cJiarge to the Grand Jury at the 
fall term of the Court in 1833 : see 12 
Hazard's Register, 188. I have ob- 
served with pleasure, that at a meeting 
of the representatives of the religious 
Society of Friends in Pennsylvania, 
New Jersey and Delaware, held at 
Philadelphia, the igthdayof 12th mo., 
1873, t^^^y adopted an address against 
the practice of horse-racing, both in 
regular race courses and at Agricul- 
tural Fairs. 

By the Act of Feb. 17, 1820, all 
racing, running, pacing or trotting of 
horses, mares or geldings, for money, 
goods or any other valuable thing, is 
declared a public nuisance; the horses 
are forfeited, and any money lost on a 
bet thereon, is recoverable back, &c. 
The Act of 2 2d March, 181 7, for- 
bids all horse-racing, &c., in Phila- 
delphia, whether for money or not. 
It should be extended to the whole 
State. 

In Aug., 1 841, the last execution of 
a criminal took place in the jail yard, 
at Chester. This was the hanging of 
a colored man, Thomas Cropper, for 
the murder of Mary Hollis, in Bir- 
mingham. I was present, and never 
want to see another execution. 

After the close of the war with Eng- 
land, manufacturing establishments of 
different kinds were rapidly formed in 
all parts of the county. In 1826, these 
improvements excited so much inter- 
est, that a public meeting of manufac- 
turers and other citizens was called, 
which met at Chester, and a commit- 
tee consisting of George G. Leiper, 
John Willcox and William Martin, 
were appointed, "to ascertain the 
number, extent and capacity of the 
manufactories, mills and unimproved 
mill-seats in the county of Delaware. 
The committee employed Benjamin 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



229 



Pearson, Esq., to take account of the 
same. ' ' 

His statement accompanies the re- 
port of the committee, which was 
printed in pamphlet form, in 1826, 
by Joseph M. G. Lescure, at Chester. 
It is endorsed in my father's hand- 
writing, as being the first i2mo. ever 
printed in the county. Graham Hos- 
kins says, "It is the first book ever 
printed in Delaware County," upon 
the authority of Richard Flower. I 
insert the following interesting pro- 
ceedings of the meeting, held to re- 
ceive the report of the committee, 
copied from the pamphlet ; a copy of 
which I have, viz. : 

" At a meeting of a numljer of manufacturers 
and other citizens of Delaware County, con- 
vened agreeably to public notice, at the Court 
House in Chester, on Saturday the 5th of 
August, 1826, for the purpose of receiving the 
reports of the committee appointed at a former 
meeting, to ascertain the number of manufac- 
tories, improved and unimproved mill-seats 
in the county, William Anderson, Esq., was 
appointed Chairman, and Dr. Samuel Ander- 
son, Secretary. 

The object of the meeting being stated from 
the chair, Mr. Leiper rose and delivered the 
following appropriate address : 

Mr. Chairman.— \i becomes my melan- 
choly duty, fellow-citizens, to announce to you, 
as Chairman of your Committee, and in behalf 
of Mr. Martin, who is absent, the decease of 
our respectable colleague and friend, John 
Willcox, Esq., of this county. When the grey- 
headed pilgrim, covered with honor and with 
years, after a life of usefulness, seeks a repose 
in the tomb from the defections of human na- 
ture, or when the infant, crowing in the moth- 
er's arms, is snatched from her caresses, we 
yield them with submission to their God. The 
one anchors his shattered boat in safety, where 
the perils and dangers of life shall disturb it 
no more; the other the Almighty calls to him- 
self before the fast is let loose and his little 
bark of destiny is allowed to leave the shore, 
to begin the voyage over the tempestuous and 
troubled ocean of mortality — but when we 



behold a young man in uncommon vigor of 
health ; in the spring-tide of life and of useful- 
ness ; the prop of a most respectable and aged 
parent; a tender and affectionate husband and 
father, suddenly snatched from among us ; are 
we stocks, or are we stones, that we will not 
sympathize with those who are in sorrow? 
Shall we not feel for that afflicted parent ; for 
the bruised heart of her whom he had vowed 
to cherish forever; for the little pledges of 
their love, too young to realize the loss of their 
kind and indulgent protector? There is a 
balm in sympathy; there is a pleasure in know- 
ing those we love are loved by others ; and a 
resolution of this meeting may be often looked 
upon with interest by a child, too young to re- 
collect a father while living — a reminiscence 
founded on the evidence of those who associ- 
ated with him, who loved him while living, 
and deplored him when dead. 

I beg leave to oifer the following resolutions, 
which were unanimously adopted by the meet- 
ing : 

Resolved, That this meeting sincerely regret 
the loss the county of Delaware has sustained 
by the decease of John Willcox, Esq., one of 
her most public spirited and respected citizens ; 
and beg leave respectfully to offer to the family 
their condolence on this melancholy occasion. 

Resolved, That a copy of this resolution, 
signed by the Chairman and Secretary, be de- 
livered to his venerable father, and three copies 
be enclosed to Mrs. Willcox — one for herself, 
the other two to be handed by her in proper 
season to her children. 

George G. Leiper, Esq., from the commit- 
tee appointed for that purpose, submitted a 
report containing a statistical account of the 
manufactories, mills, improved and unimprov- 
ed mill-seats in the county. The report being 
read, it was on motion resolved, that 500 copies 
be printed. 

Resolved, That Mr. John P. Crozer fill the 
vacancy occasioned by the death of Mr. John 
Willcox, in the committee. 

Resolved, That the proceedings of this meet- 
ing be published in the Upla)id UnionC' 

The committee then submitted their 
rejjort to the meeting, in the following 
words : 

" The connnittce appointed to ascertain the 
number, extent and capacity of the manufac- 



230 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



lories, mills and imim|iniv(.'cl niill-scats in 
Delaware County, het; leave to repin-t, that 
lliey employed Benjamin Pearson, Esq., to 
take an aecount of the same ; and from his 
slatcnient it appears, that tliere are in said 
county, viz. : 

38 Flour mills; 16 of which grind 203,600 
bushels of grain per annum. 

53 Saw mills; 16 of wliich cut 1,717,000 
feet of lumber per annum. 

5 Rolling and slitting mills, which roll 700 
tons sheet iron per annum; value $105,000; 
employ 30 hands ; wages, $7,200. 

14 Woolen factories ; employ 228 hands. 

12 Cotton factories ; manufacture 704,380 
pounds yarn per annum ; value $232,445; em- 
ploy 415 hands; wages, $51,380. 

II Paper mills; manufacture 31,296 reams 
of. ])aper per annum; value, $114,712; em- 
ploy 215 hands; wages, $29,120. 

2 Powder mills; manufacture 11,900 quar- 
ter casks per annum; value, $47,600; employ 
40 hands; wages, $12,000. 

I Nail factory; manufactures 150 tons of 
nails per annum; value, $20,000; employs 8 
hands ; wages, $2,400. 

4 Tilt blade and edge tool manufactories ; 2 
of which manufacture per annum 2,000 axes, 
200 cleavers, 1,200 dozen shovels, 200 dozen 
scythes, and 500 drawing knives. 

1 Power-loom factory, weaves 30,000 yards 
per week; value, $3,000; 200 looms; employs 
1 20 hands, wages per week, $500. 

2 Oil mills; manufacture 7,000 gallons lin- 
seed oil ; $7,000. 

I Machine factory ; 5 Snuff mills; 2 Plaster 
or gypsum mills ; 3 Clover mills ; 3 IJark mills; 
I Mill for sawing stone. 

42 Mill seats unimproved on the ]irincipal 
streams, of various falls. 200 Mills and Mill- 
seals. 

Making in the whole 158 Mills and Factories 
in operation, and 42 mill-seats unimproved, 
in a district of country not exceeding twelve 
miles square ; in the five kinds of manufacto- 
ries which have returned the hands, viz.. Pa- 
per, Woolen, Cotton, Powder and Edge tools, 
employ 1,038 hands. 

For a further and more particular account 
of the location and capacity of the different 
Mills, Factories and unimproved Mill-seats, we 
refer you to the annexed statement as given to 
Mr. Pearson by the respective owners and oc- 
cupiers of the same. There are many jiarticu- 



lars relating both to this report and to oilier 
branches of industry, which your committee 
felt anxious to obtain, but owing to several 
circumstances they found it impossible to do 
so. It was therefore, reluctantly abandoned; 
but with the hope that the inquiry will be 
further pursued in due time. 

G. G. I.KII'KR, 

Wm. Martin. 

Mr. Pearson's report addressed to 
the committee, is of too extensive a 
character to plea.se the general reader, 
although it could not fail to interest 
every inhabitant of Delaware Co., as it 
gives not only brief descriptions of all 
mill-seats in the counties, but the names 
of the owners and occupants of them. 
I give a few descriptions, taken from 
the report, as an example of the whole. 

"No. I. Ridley Creek, in Chester 
township, at the head of tide water, a 
grist and merchant mill, and a saw 
mill ; head and fall eleven feet, owned 
and occupied by Pierce Crosby, Esq., 
can manufacture from 30 to 50 barrels 
of flour per day. Saw mill cuts from 
two to three hundred thousand feet of 
lumber per annum, out of logs procured 
principally by water. 

No. I. On a small branch of Ridley 
Creek, in Lower Providence town- 
ship, a tilt mill, head and fall about 
twenty feet, owned by Henry Sharp- 
less, and occupied by William Beatty ; 
manufactured last year (1825) about 
1,600 cast steel pitching axes, 500 
broad axes, 500 drawing knives, 200 
cleavers and choppers ; steeled about 
500 axes and adzes, besides making 
a great number of chisels, gouges, 
butcher knives, and various other edge 
tools, all of cast steel ; employs about 
10 hands. 

No. I. On Chester Creek, in Ches- 
ter township, one and a half miles from 
the Court House, in the Borough of 
Chester, and near the head of tide 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



231 



water, a grist and merchant mill, and 
a saw mill, called Chester Mills, head 
and fall 12 feet 6 inches clear of the 
tide ; owned by Richard Flower, and 
the grist mill occupied by him; has 
manufactured from 30 to 40,000 bush- 
els of grain per year, for many years 
past ; is now only grinding grist occa- 
sionally ; the present stone mill house 
is the third on this seat, which was 
first improved in 1683. A vessel car- 
rying 1,200 bushels of grain can be 
navigated to the door of the mill. 
The saw mill is occupied by William G. 
Flower, and cut last year 310,000 feet 
of lumber out of logs procured by 
water. ' ' This place is now called Up- 
land, and is the site of the extensive 
mills of the heirs of the estate of John 
P. Crozer, deceased. 

" No. 2. On Chester Creek, in Ches- 
ter township, a mill-seat, a good fall 
of water, on lands of George Chandley, 
dec'd, Jonathan Pennell, Isaac Morgan 
and others. 

No. 3. On Chester Creek, in Ches- 
ter township, a grist mill and a saw 
mill ; head and fall about 1 1 feet ; 
owned and occupied by John Button, 
grinds about 10 or 12,000 bushels of 
grist per annum. Saw mill employed 
occasionally. 

No. 2. On the west branch of Ches- 
ter Creek, in Aston, a cotton factory, 
head and fall 13 feet, to which 3 feet 
may be added ; owned and occupied 
by J. P. Crozier; has 10 carding en- 
gines of 24 inches, 2 drawing frames 
of 3 double heads each, i roving frame 
of 16 cans, one stretcher of 102 spin- 
dles, 588 throstle spindles, 648 mule 
spindles; spins about iioo pounds of 
cotton yarn per week, from Nos. 17 
to 20; employs about 30 hands; dwel- 
ling houses for 9 families, besides man- 
sion house. 



No. 4. On the west branch of Ches- 
ter Creek, in Aston, a mill-seat; fall of 
water 17 or 18 feet, on lands of Mark 
Willcox, Esq., and Wm. Peters. 

No. 5. On the west branch of Ches- 
ter Creek, in Concord, a i vat paper 
mill, head and fall about 14 feet; own- 
ed by Mark Willcox, Esq., and occu- 
pied by his son, John Willcox; man- 
ufactures about 1500 reams fine paper 
per annum, employs 18 hands." 

This is Ivy Mills, established by 
Thomas Willcox, in 1729, (father of 
the above-named Mark,) shortly after 
his arrival in this country. It was 
the second paper mill erected in this 
country. 

It will be pleasing to know, that the 
prophetic words of Judge Leiper have 
become true. The daughters of John 
Willcox prize the resolutions of the 
meeting amongst the most treasured 
mementoes of their father. 

John Willcox married Elizabeth 
Brackett ; his eldest daughter, Ellen 
Jenkins, married J. Howard Golder, of 
Baltimore ; the youngest, Caroline, 
married William Seal, now dec'd, son 
of Joseph H., of Philadelphia; neither 
of whom have issue. His widow, 
Elizabeth (Brackett), married many 
years since, Commodore John Mars- 
ton, of the U. S. Navy ; they had issue, 
John, Jr., Josiah Randall Marston, late 
a Captain in the U. S. Army, now 
deceased, leaving a widow ; and Francis 
Du Pont Marston. A brother of Com- 
modore Marston, Lieut. Col. Ward 
Marston, is a retired officer of the U. 
S. Marine Corps. 

Thomas Willcox, of England, and 
his wife, Elizabeth Cole, of Ireland, 
settled at Ivy Mills, Delaware County, 
Pa., in 1727. Mr. W. died in 1779, 
and his wife in 1 780, leaving a numerous 
progeny. The Willcox's of Delaware 



232 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



County and Philadelphia, are the de- 
scendants of one of their sons, Mark 
WiLLcox, born 1743, died 1827, who 
married Mary Cauffman ; they had 
yoscph, y^ohn and yatnes M. 

yaines M. Willcox married, first, 
Sallic Orne, had issue, Mark and Wil- 
liam J. ; secondly, Mary Brackett, had 
issue, Mary, Thomas, James M., John, 
Joseph, Mary, Edward J., Henry B., 
and Ida E. Willcox. Mary and Eliza- 
beth Brackett, who married the two 
brothers Willcox, were sisters. Mark 
married Ellen Lucas, of Baltimore, 
and has Eliza, Ellen, Mary, Louisa, 
James Mark, William Fielding, Eliza, 
Thomas Carrell, Rose and Mark. 

James M. Willcox (the 2d) married 
Mary Keating, of Philadelphia, (and 
had John K., William J., Eulalia, 
Mary Amelia, jCora Elizabeth and 
James Mark.) She died Aug. 5, 1862, 
and he married (2d) Katharine Sharp- 
ies, and had (Arthur V. and Annie.) 
Joseph Willcox married Elizabeth, 
daughter of Rev. R. U. Morgan, (and I 
has Percy Willcox,) Mary Willcox; 
Edward J. Willcox (married Sophie 
Pochon ;) Henry ; Eliza married David 
W. Odiorne, and had Mary, Thomas 
and Ida Odiorne. 

The second place in this State where 
Catholic service was held, was at the 
Willcox residence at Ivy Mills. 

The list of minerals of Delaware 
County in Dr. Smith' s History, and 
in Dana' s System of Mineralogy, 1868 
and '69, was prepared by my friend. 
Col. Joseph Willcox, who says: "The 
garnets near Leiperville, and the An- 
dalusites in Upper Providence, are the 
best specimens that have been found in 
the world. And that few districts of 
its size in the world, have as great a 
mmiber of interesting minerals as Dela- 
ware County. Col. W. has the finest 



collection of the minerals of the county 
in his cabinet that has been made. 

The following article is from a late 
number of the West Chester Republican. 

"In a narrow, cosy little valley 
on Chester Creek, eight miles below 
West Chester, on the Philadelphia and 
West Chester Railroad, are Glen Mills 
■—two great rambling piles of stone 
qnd frame architecture, of no definite 
style, but great solidity. Here it is 
that all the paper is manufactured 
which is used by the Government for 
greenbacks, fractional currency, reve- 
nue stamps, &c. 

Glen Mills consist of two separate 
establishments, situate a quarter of a 
mile apart, on the south side of Ches- 
ter Creek. They are owned and run 
by Mark and James Willcox, a family 
whose connection with the manufac- 
ture of paper dates back for several 
generations, being descended from 
Thomas Willcox, who settled at Ivy 
Mills, about three miles distant, in 
1727, and who was one of the first to 
commence the manufacture of paper 
in the New World. At Ivy Mills, the 
senior representatives of the family 
still reside, and there, is still to be seen 
the small ivy-covered mills in which 
all the bank note paper in the country 
was made for many a year, including 
that used for the Continental currency. 

It is around the lower and largest 
mill, which is driven by both steam 
and water power, that the interesting 
part of the business settles. This mill 
is run as two separate and distinct de- 
partments — a paper mill, and a branch 
of the U. S. Treasury Department. 
The Messrs. Willcox are the ])atentces 
and owners of the process and machi- 
nery bv which tlie peculiar red and 
blue mixture is made in tlie fibre of 
the pajier used by tlie Cunernment, 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



233 



and they manufacture it under a con- 
tract terminable at pleasure. 

The material used is pure linen rags, 
white, or nearly white. Now all the 
linen rags that are produced in this 
country would furnish but a small part 
of the quantity required; so a great 
part of them comes from Europe, fur- 
nished by A. T. Stewart, of New York, 
under a yearly contract. The ' dis- 
tributive fibre,' is a long, red and 
comparatively coarse fibre, that may be 
seen running promiscuously through 
the body of the paper. 

The manufacture of this paper is 
attended with great expense in time 
and labor. The length of the fibre 
necessitates a slow motion in the ma- 
chine, or else it will not feed even. 
The ' localized fibre ' is liable to feed 
too fast or too slow, causing blotches 
or bare spots, which spoils the sheet. 
Then a great deal of paper is thrown 
out in the manufacturer's inspection, 
and more in the government inspec- 
tion. All this goes to reduce the quan- 
tity of good paper, so that the mill 
does not turn out more than one-fourth 
the amount that it would of book or 
letter paper, and all these drawbacks 
add to the cost. 

The majority of the paper for bank 
notes is shipped to the American Bank 
Note Company and the National Bank 
note Company, who engrave and print 
the notes by contract ; one company 
printing the face and the other the 
back, and vice versa; but no one com- 
pany printing awhole note. The note, 
after being printed, goes to Washing- 
ton and receives the Government seal 
and number, when it is ready for cir- 
culation. The internal revenue paper 
goes to the Continental Bank Note 
Company, who print the revenue 
stamps. 



For checks and bonds, a chameleon 
paper is used, the peculiarity of which 
is that the application of an acid will 
immediately change the tint to one 
color, while an alkali will turn it an- 
other, thus preventing the application 
of any means that can be used to alter 
the denomination of a check or bond. 

All the paper for the Government, 
is manufactured on a 6 2 -inch Fourd- 
rinier machine. Short pieces of red 
silk are mixed with the pulp in the en- 
gine, and the finished stuff is conduct- 
ed to the wire without passing through 
any screens, which might retain the 
silk threads. By an arrangement above 
the wire cloth, a shower of short pieces 
of fine blue silk thread is dropped 
in streaks upon the paper while it is 
forming. The upper side, on which 
the blue silk is dropped, is the one 
used for the face of the notes, and, 
from the manner in which the threads 
are applied, must show them more 
distinctly than the lower or reverse 
side, although they are embedded 
deeply enough to remain fixed. The 
mill is guarded by officers night and 
day, to prevent the abstraction of any 
paper. ' ' 

The history of the Willcox family 
in connection with the Government, 
is interesting and unique. Their bus- 
iness, commencing about 1729, has 
descended through four generations, 
during a period of nearly 150 years; 
and their house is, at this time, not 
only the oldest Paper house, but the 
oldest business house of any kind in 
the United States. When the old 
Colonies, much more than a century 
ago, found themselves obliged to issue 
paper money, the currency-paper used 
by all of them, was manufactured by 
Thomas Willcox, at Ivy Mills, and 
mostlv printed in Philadelphia. No 



234 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



other rurrency-paiier was used upon [ 
the Continent than that made at tlie 
old Ivy MilL Many years later, in the 
necessities of the newly confederated 
States, the paper for all the Continen- 
tal currency was supplied from the 
same establishment. There was no 
other possessing experience in the man- 
ufacture ; and during the Revolution- 
ary war, paper could not be imported. 
Again in the war of 1812, the Govern- 
ment was obliged to issue paper money, 
and again recourse was had to the old 
Ivy Mill to supply its necessities. At 
that time a distinctive paper, with col- 
ored silk shreds woven through it, was 
made for the Government's use ; and 
the mill was guarded by the Govern- 
ment, to prevent the paper from leak- 
ing out into unlawful hands. The 
business was then conducted by Mark 
Willcox and his son John. After this 
time several other mills commenced 
the manufacture of bank-note paper, 
for the use of banks, that then began 
tx) multiply throughout the country; 
but the Ivy Mill continued its special 
manufacture until about 15 years ago, 
at which time it was the last ''hand- 
mill" in operation in the United 
States. Before then, however, Mark, 
James and Joseph Willcox had suc- 
ceeded in perfecting the manufacture 
of bank-note paper upon their large 
Fourdrinier machine at Glen Mills, near 
three miles distant. When the war of 
the Rebellion broke out, the Govern- 
ment, for the third time, in the neces- 
sity of war, issued paper money, and 
drew^ the main part of its supply from 
the Willco.x mills. The old "hand- 
mill" could have made but a small 
]jortion of the unprecedented amount 
recjuired ; and even the large machines 
of the Glen Mills were taxed to their 
full ca])acity for that pur])ose. About 



the end of the rebellion, the Govern- 
ment undertook to make its own cur- 
rency-paper, in a paper mill erected 
in the basement of the Treasury build- 
ing in Washington; and, after several 
years of experimenting to produce a 
special paper to prevent frauds, at the 
cost of many hundreds of thousands of 
dollars, the attempt was abandoned as 
unsuccessful. The manufacture then 
fell back into its naturaj channel, and 
Mark and James M. Willcox have, 
since that time, continued 'to meet 
the various requirements of the Trea- 
sury, with different protective papers 
for notes, bonds, fractional currency, 
stamps, checks, &c., that have proved 
to be the most useful and efficient ever 
made. 

From Mr. Pearson's report I make 
two more extracts : 

No. 8. On Chester Creek, above 
the West Branch, in Middletown and 
Aston, a mill-seat, fall of water 9 or 10 
feet, owned by William Martin and 
Joseph W. Smith. 

No. 9. On Chester Creek in Aston, 
a stone cotton factory, 35 by 55 feet, 
three stories high, head and fall 16 
feet, owned by William Martin ; and 
Joseph W. Smith, and occupied by 
William Martin, has 10 carding en- 
gines of 30 inches, 2 drawing-frames 
of three double heads each, i double 
speeder of 20 spindles, one roving- 
frame of 16 cans, one stretcher of 
102 spindles, 648 throstles spindles, 
936 mule spindles; spins 1200 pounds 
of cotton yarn per week from Nos. 
18 to 25; employs 45 hands. Also, 
a 2 vat paper mill on the same race, 
head and fall 15 feet, owned by Wil- 
liam Martin and Joseph W. Smith, 
and occupied by John B. Duckett, 
manufactures 60 reams of quarto jjost 
paper and ;^;^ reams of ])rinting me- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



235 



dium per week ; employs 23 hands. 
There are on the premises, three large 
stone dwelling houses, and tenements 
for 17 families." 

M)' father lived in one of the stone 
dwelling houses mentioned ; my uncle, 
Joseph W. Smith, resided in the other. 
My father gave the name to the mills 
which they yet bear, viz., "Lenni 
Mills." After my parents left Lenni, 
my father having been unfortunate, 
not in his business, but in misplaced 
confidence in one he thought a friend, 
the mills and property passed into the 
ownership of Mrs. Sellers, the mother- 
in-law of the late Peter Hill, who oc- 
cupied the property at the time of his 
death, about i860; previous to which 
Mr. Daniel Lamot rented the mills, 
carried on business there, and resided 
in the former residence of my father, 
which was erected by Mr. Lungren, 
the former owner, from whom my 
father and uncle purchased the estate. 
After Peter Hill's death, the mills 
were rented by Gen. Robert Patter- 
son, the great manufacturer, (who re- 
sides in Philadelphia, but was a Dela- 
ware County boy,) and the old Lun- 
gren house was occupied by his agent, 
Robert L. Martin, who superintended 
the mills for a time. Mr. Martin has 
since purchased the farm and residence 
of the late George W. Hill, on the east 
side of Chester Creek, at Lenni, ad- 
joining the property now owned by 
the heirs of William Martin, dec'd, the 
heirs of the late Right Rev. Bishop 
Alonzo Potter, the daughters of Mr. 
Richard S. Smith, and William Martin, 
Jr. The road running to the south of 
the two last mentioned properties, and 
leading to Lenni depot and mills, is 
still called the "Lungren Road," 
which is the road leading from Lenni 
mills to Lima. 

31 



XXIV. 
I OBTAINED from John K. Zeilin, 
Esq., an old book, called " The Min- 
utes OF THE Bible Society of Dela- 
ware County," from which I make 
the following interesting extracts. Mr. 
Zeilin was the second and last Secre- 
tary of the Society. The first entry 
in the minutes reads thus : 

" Agreeable lo pul)lic noUce, a nvimlier of 
the citizens of Delaware County, met at Ches- 
ter on the 6th of December, A. D., 1827, for 
the purpose of aiding the Philadelphia Bible 
Society in their benevolent design of furnish- 
ing every destitute family in Pennsylvania 
with a copy of the Scriptures. Peirce Crosby. 
Esq., was called to the Chair, and the Rev, 
Joseph Walker was elected Secretary. On mo- 
tion of George G. Leiper, Esq., it M'as resolved, 
That the members of this meeting, duly ap- 
preciating the motive of the Philadelphia Bible 
.Society in their desire of placing in the hands 
of every destitute family in the Common- 
wealth of Pennsylvania, a copy of the Bible, 
in a period of time not exceeding three years, 
we offer the said Society our full co-operation 
(as far as the county of Delaware is interested) 
to carry into effect their philanthropic inten- 
tion." 

It was then Resolved, That a Com- 
mittee of two persons be appointed in 
each township in Delaware County, to 
ascertain those families which are not 
in possession of a copy of the Bible. 

The following Committees were ap- 
pointed in the several townships : 

Aston — Francis Wisley, John Bowen. 
Bethel — Powell Clayton, Robert Johnson. 
Birmingham — Eli Harvey, Robert Frame. 
Chester — Jesse J. Maris, Peirce Crosby. 
Coneord — R. N. Gamble, Nathan Sharpless. 
Lo'tver Chichester — Rev. Richard U. Morgan, 

Rev. Joseph Walker. 
Upper Chichester — Rev. Jacob M. Douglass, 

James Craig. 
Darby — Thomas Smith, Esq., Dr. Morris C. 

Shallcross. 
Upper Darin — Rev. William Palmer, David 

Evans. 



236 



HISTORY OF ciiest?:k. 



F.di^motit — Cieorjjc l^ishop, Joseph Rcucslur. 
Havcrford — Andrew Lindsay, Sani'l (lani- 

gues. 
Marple — Samuel IJlack, Isaiah Fawkes. 
Middletotvn — Abraham I'ennell, Jas. Emlen. 
iVinvlo-wn — John Hunter, Enos Williamson. 
.W'thcr Providence — Isaae Sharpless, Henry 

Forrest. 
Upper Providence — Isaac Cochran, Amor 

Bishop. 
Radnor — Edward Siter, Jesse Brooke. 
Ridley — George G. Leiper, John L. Pearson. 
Spritigfield — Dr. Joseph Wilson, John Ogden. 
Thornhury — Thomas II. Brinton, Thomas 

Hemphill. 
TinicuDi — David Rose, John Rohhins. 

A meeting of the citizens of Dela- 
ware County favorable to the circula- 
tion of the Holy Scriptures, was held 
at Chester, the 7th of Jan. 1828; and 
agreeably to adjournment, a number 
of the citizens of Delaware County 
met at the Middletown Presbyterian 
Church the 2d of Feb., 1828, when 
the Rev. Jacob M. Douglass was ap- 
pointed Chairman, and the Rev. Joseph 
Walker, Secretary. The Throne of 
Grace was addressed for the blessing 
of the Lord on the labors of the asso- 
ciation, and several addresses were 
delivered to excite the attention of the 
members to the importance of the 
work assigned them by the Great Head 
of the Church. Reports were received 
from 12 townships, by which it ap- 
peared that the aggregate number of 
families in those townships destitute 
of the Bible, was 199, as follows: 

Aston, . 17 Chester, . . .33 

Bethel, ... 7 Marple, . . .15 

Birmingh.im, 9 Middletown, . . 19 

Concord, . . .12 Nether Providence, . lO 

Lower Chichester, . 12 Ridley, . . .45 

Upper Chichester, . 9 Springfield . .11 

On motion of Rev. R. U. Morgan, it 
was unanimously resolved, That this 
meeting now form itself into a So- 
ciety to be denominated " The Bible 
Spcicly of Delaware Coitnly ;'' the ob- 



ject of wliich shall be to circulate the 
sacred Scriptures without note or com- 
ment, and aid tlie Philadelphia Bible 
Society in extending its operations, 
and particularly to co-operate in their 
present laudable undertaking, of sup- 
l)lying every destitute family in Penn- 
sylvania with a copy of the Holy vol- 
ume. 

On motion, Messrs. Leiper, Morgan 
and Walker were appointed a Com- 
mittee to draft a Constitution, and the 
following was reported and adopted : 

Article i. — This Society shall be 
known by the name of " The Bible 
Society of Delaware County ;^'' the ob- 
ject of which shall be to assist in the 
circulation of the Sacred Scriptures 
without note or comment, and to aid 
the Philadelphia Bible Society in ex- 
tending its operations. 

Article 2. — Every person subscrib- 
ing the sum of one dollar per annum, 
payable in advance, shall, during the 
continuance of such payment, be a 
member of this Society. Ten dollars 
shall constitute any person a member 
for life. (L. M.) 

The other articles of the Constitu- 
tion, being those relating to the mode 
of transacting business, and of no pub- 
lic interest here, are omitted. 

The following names, most of them 
in the Rev. Jacob M. Douglass' hand- 
writing, are attached to the Constitu- 
tion, in another part of the book. 
Those names marked with * are signa- 
tures in the original : 



Jacob M. Douglass, 

Adly McGill, 

Joseph Walker, Jr., 

John K. Zeilin, 

R. U. Morgan, 

John Smith, 

George G. Leiper, L. M. 

Joseph Bint, 

Samuel Black, 

Frederick Shull, 

Jacnl) Habbersett, 



Thomas Parsons,* 
Mary Moulder,* 
Harriet D. Cobourn,' 
John Ogden, 
James Craig, 
Robert Bcatty, 
Jemima Massey, 
Richard Ottey, 
Thomas Clyde, 
George Thompson, 
George W. P.artram, 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



237 



Eliza S. Leiper, 

John Burt, 

Samuel C. Brinckle, 

Isaac Cochran, 

Thomas Sellers, 

John Hill, 

Sarah Thompson, 

Henr>' Myers, 

L. P. Thomson, M. D., 

Peirce Crosby, L. M., 

Elizabeth Lewis, 

Sarah A. Douglass, 

Sarah Bryan, 

Marj- Douglass, 

Samuel Anderson, 

Rachael Wetherill, 

John Wells, 

Rebecca Grumbes, 

Robert Young, 

Susan Ann B. Cobourn,* 

Selina Louisa Cobourn,* 



Salkeld Larkin, 
Lydia Ebrite, 
Joseph Talbot. 
John Taylor, 
Justus Dunnet, M. D. 
ISIark Elliott, 
Aaron Huston, 
Robert N. Gamble, 
Catharine Brinton, 
William Anderson, 
Marj' K. Brinton, 
John P. Crozier, 
Abraham Sharpless, 
Abraham Pennell, 
Elizabeth Walker, 
Baruel B. Beckwith, 
John D. White, 
Mary D. Vanneman, 
Lsaac C. Derrick, 
Benjamin F. Johnson, 
Samuel Russell. 



The Constitution being adopted, 
the following officers were elected : 

President— GuoRG^ G. Leiper. 

Viee-Presidents, 

Rev. R. U. Morgan, Rev. Jos. Walker, 

Phineas Price, M. D. 

Secretary— ^^x . J. M. Douglass. 
Treasurer — Samuel Black. 

Managers . 

Peirce Crosby, James Craig, 

Robert Johnson', Rev. William Palmer, 

Frederick Shull, Thomas H. Brinton, 

John Lindsay, Abraham Sharpless, 

Henry Myers, Rev. John Smith, 

Rev. Sam'l C. Brinckle, John P. Crozier. 

On motion, resolved. That this So- 
ciety meet the first Saturday in April 
next, at the Presbyterian Church in 
Ridley, at seven o'clock, A. M. 

Saturday, the 5th of April, 1828, the 
Society met at the Presbyterian meet- 
ing house in Ridley, near Leiperville. 
A respectable congregation was pre- 
sent. The meeting was opened with 
singing a hymn, after which the Rev. 
Joseph Walker prayed, and the Rev. 
Messrs. Morgan and Douglass address- 
ed the congregation on the subject of 
the authenticity and importance of the 
Holy Scriptures, and the necessity and 
obligation of circulating them. The 
Society being organized, the President 
took the Chair, and reports were re- 



ceived from Haverford, Upper Provi- 
dence and Darby, and an additional 
report from Chester. 

It appears that there are destitute of 
the Bible in Darby, 23 families; Haver- 
ford, II families; Upper Providence, 
6 families; Chester, (in addition to 
former report) 3 families. Making a 
total in three townships of 43. 

On motion of Rev. R. U. Morgan, 
it was resolved. That the Treasurer be 
requested to procure from the Phila- 
delphia Bible Society as soon as practi- 
cable, 300 Bibles, and deposit 150 at 
Chester, for the purpose of supplying 
the different ToAvnship Committees in 
the vicinity of that Borough. 

On theafternoon of June 2, 1828, the 
Society met in the Episcopal Church 
at Chester, and after adjournment of 
the Society, and the meeting of the 
Board of Managers, the gentlemen be- 
longing to the Bible Society continued 
to sit in the Church for the purpose of 
organizing " The Tract Society of Del- 
mvare County,'''' which was according- 
ly organized. 

The Bible Society continued to hold 
meetings until Dec. 6, 1830, when, by 
the minutes, their last meeting appears 
to have been held, although they ad- 
journed to meet on Jan. i, 1 831, at the 
Episcopal Church, Concord; but no 
such meeting was ever held. The So- 
ciety having fulfilled its purpose, natu- 
rally cea.sed to exist. 

In the Upland Union of x-Vug. 19, 
1828, will be found the following in- 
teresting account headed "The Leiper 
Canal— The First Railroad." 

"It is with pleasure as Avell as pride, 
we announce to the world, that on Sat- 
urday last, the 1 6th of August, 1828, 
the corner stone of the first lock of 
the Leiper Canal (in Ridley Town- 
ship) was laid bv William Strickland, 



238 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



(the celebrated Architect,) Engineer, 
assisted by John K. Kane, Esq., Mr. 
Striithers, and Mr. George Daniels, of 
Philadelphia. 

About half past ii o'clock, A. M., 
the procession moved toward the canal 
lock, to see the grand ceremony per- 
formed. The scene was novel as well as 
interesting to the citizens of our coun- 
ty, and the event must ever be hailed 
by future generations as one of the most 
glorious epochs in the history of Del- 
aware County. The large concourse 
of ladies and gentlemen present, who 
had assembled from the city and neigh- 
boring villages to witness the beautiful 
sight, gave an interest to the ceremony 
truly grand and imposing. Amidst 
the group of ladies, was to be seen 
Mrs. Elizabeth C. Leiper, the aged and 
amiable consort of him who had first 
projected this great work, who had lived 
to see what was first suggested by her 
husband, commenced by her eldest son, 
George Gray Leiper, Esq., and we 
hope the work, this day begun, will be 
consummated by him. Thomas Leiper 
may truly be denominated the Clinton 
of Delaware County. With him origi- 
nated the plan for the construction of 
the first Railway in America, and which 
was completed in 1807. The Railway 
was used for a number of years, but 
Mr. Leiper being advanced in age, and 
firm in the belief that the day was not 
far distant when his first plan, which 
was the construction of a Canal, would 
eventually be completed, the Railway 
was suffered to be neglected, the Legis- 
lature of this State having refused a law 
which would have enabled him to carry 
his first plan hilly into operation. 

After the corner stone was properly 
adjusted by the Engineer, the following 
short address was read by Professor Pat- 
terson, of Philadelpliia, ac()])y()fw]ii(h 



was put in a small bottle, and deposited 
in the corner stone, by one of the grand- 
daughters of the venerable projector. 

' The Leijier Canal was projected by 
Thomas Leiper, in the year 1790, for 
the purpose of completing a navigable 
communication between his quarries on 
Crum Creek and the Delaware. Ap- 
plication was made to the Legislature 
for a law to authorize its construction ; 
but it was found that Mr. Leiper's en- 
larged views were in advance of the age 
in which he lived, his scheme was con- 
sidered visionary and ruinous, and the 
law which he solicited was refused. 
Thus foiled in his favorite plan, now 
universally acknowledged to have been 
expedient and wise, he formed in the 
year 1807, a connection between his 
quarries and tide water in Ridley creek 
by a Railway, which will ever be dis- 
tinguished, as the first constructed in 
America.'' 

After the lamented death of Thomas 
Leiper in 1825, his project of a Canal 
was revived by his eldest son George 
Gray Leiper ; this corner stone being the 
commencement of the work, was laid on 
the 19th of August, 1828, by William 
Strickland, Engineer, in the presence, 
and amid the good wishes of a numer- 
ous assemblage of friends and neigh- 
bors. 

Liimediately on the close of this part 
of the ceremony, three hearty cheers 
w^ere given by the spectators. The jovial 
bowl was then passed around, and seve- 
ral excellent toasts were drank upon the 
ground. 

The following sentiment was given 
by our worthy fellow-citi/en. Joseph 
Gibbons: 

George Gray Leiper. One of the 
Keystones of Delaware County. He 
has just laid the first Stone of the first 
l,ock, of the first Canal in Delaware 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



239 



County. May he live to reap the fruit 
of the great work which he has this day 
commenced. 

The company was then invited to the 
hospitable mansion of Mr. George G. 
Leiper, and pariook of an excellent 
dinner. After which a variety of toasts 
applicable to the great work, which had 
on that day been commenced, were 
drank. The company separated at an 
early hour, delighted with the proceed- 
ings of the day." 

At a meeting of the Assembly in 
1790, a project for a canal was brought 
forward by Thos. Leiper and John Wall, 
of Delaware County, supported by a 
petition from the Stone-cutters and 
Masons of Philadelphia. Mr. Leiper 
desired the privilege of cutting a canal 
from the flowing of tide in Crum creek 
to Mcllvain's mill-dam, and thence to 
Leiper's mill-dam, in order to cheapen 
the cost of transportation of his stone 
from his quarries to tide-water. The 
mechanics stated that Mr. Leiper's 
stone was the best produced in the 
neighborhood of the city, and that the 
building of the canal would be an ad- 
vantage to the public. Against this 
privilege, John and Isaac Mcllvain re- 
monstrated, and nothing was done in 
the matter. — Westcotf s Philadelphia. 
Sunday Dispatch, Feb. 16, 1873. 

The first canal constructed in what 
is now the United States, was built by 
Lieut. Gov. Golden, in Orange county. 
New York, in the year 1750. It was a 
small affair, and was used for the trans- 
portation of stone. This was forty 
years before Mr. Leiper's application. 
Part of the Leiper canal was really the 
old mill-race enlarged, leading from 
Mcllvain's dam to their mill which 
stood just below the "Big-road," pass- 
ing through the town of Ridley, (now 
Leiperville ; ) which accounts for John 



and Isaac Mcllvain's remonstrance, 
for reasons easily imagined. 

John Mcllvaine, mentioned above, 
lived near his mills and tannery, in the 
large stone mansion house, in the vil- 
lage of Ridley, yet to be seen in per- 
fect condition, and lately occupied by 
Thomas Maddock, Esq., standing back 
from and to the south of the Post Road, 
passing through the village of Leiper- 
ville. 

In addition to the water obtained 
from the dam, through the race which 
Leiper wished turned into a canal, the 
mills used other water pumped from 
the creek alongside of the property, 
by machinery. 

James M'llvain lived in the large 
stone dwelling house, standing now, as 
it did in 1790, on the hill to the north 
of Leiperville. He was well-known 
throughout the county for his large 
stock of Merino sheep, of his own rais- 
ing. 

From the report of the Committee 
on mill-seats of Delaware County, here- 
inbefore referred to, I copy the de- 
scription of above mill-property of the 
Mcllvains, and of that of the Leipers, 
as therein set forth : 

"No. I. On Crum creek, in Ridley, 
at the head of tide water, a valuable 
mill-seat, formerly occupied as a grist 
and merchant mill, on which a saw mill 
and bark mill are now erected ; head 
and fall about 15 feet, owned and oc- 
cupied by Jeremiah Mcllvain ; can 
grind about two cords of bark per day, 
and cut from two to three hundred 
thousand feet of lumber per annum ; 
logs procured by water. ' ' 

The above description is hardly cor- 
rect. The flour mill of John Mcllvain 
stood at the southern extremity of the 
Leiper canal, where the boats were lock- 
ed into Crum creek at high tide. It 



240 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



was burned down — when I do not know ; 
its ruins were still standing there when 
I was a boy visiting John F. Hill, 
(1845,) when he lived on the "Island 
Field," just below the mouth of little 
Crum creek, now called Crum Lynne. 
There may have been once a grist mill 
on the site of the present factory, just 
below the canal bridge over the old 
Post Road leading to Chester, but when 
John S. Mcllvain lived in the old stone 
house, just east of the canal bridge on 
the north side of the Post Road, now 
called the Plank road to Darby, in 
Leiperville, about 1834, there was only 
a tannery, bark and saw mill on the 
premises marked No. i above. 

" No. 2. On Crum creek, in Ridley 
township, a grist and saw mill, head 
and fall 12 feet, owned and occupied 
by George G. Leiper. Saw mill em- 
ployed principally on logs procured by 
water. Also a woolen factory and grist 
mill ; has one pair of stocks, two card- 
ing engines, one billy of 59 spindles, 
and two Jennys of 70 spindles each, 
machinery owned by Mr. Leiper and 
occupied by Joseph Burt, who employs 
about 1 7 hands at the factory. ' ' These 
are the mills located near the late resi- 
dence of Judge Leiper. 

"No. 3. On Crum creek, in Lower 
Providence, two snuff mills, with eight 
mulls, two cutting machines, tS>:c. ; and 
a two vat paper mill on the same race, 
head and fall 12^ feet, owned by 
Thomas Leiper & Sons, and occupied 
by John Holmes. Also a mill from the 
same dam on another mill-race, has 
been employed in sawing stone, grind- 
ing oyster shells, threshing grain, and 
making cider, in Sjjringfield townshij); 
head and fall 14 feet." 

" No. 4. On Crum creek, in Lower 
Providence, a tilt mill ; head and fall 
from 12 to 13 feet, owned bv Thomas 



Leiper & Sons, occupied by Nathan 
Ke)-s, who manufactures about 200 
dozen scythes and straw knives per an- 
num." 

"No. 5. On Crum creek, in Spring- 
field and Lower Providence, a mill seat 
on lands of Thomas Leiper & Sons and 
John Ogden." 

Thomas Leiper died in the year 1825, 
in the 80th year of his age. He was a 
Scotchman by birth, and came to this 
country at the age of nineteen, and at 
the time of the Revolution had accu- 
mulated quite a large fortune as a to- 
bacconist, in Philadelphia. He was 
Orderly Sergeant, Treasurer and Sec- 
retary of the First City Troop, and af- 
terwards President of the Common 
Councils of the city. His mills and 
quarries were in Delaware County, and 
he passed much of his time there. He 
married Elizabeth, the eldest daughter 
of George Gray, of Gray's Ferry. After 
his death, his sons, George Gray, Sam- 
uel M., and William J. Leiper, engaged 
extensively in the business of quarry- 
ing stone on Crum creek, and furnish- 
ed large quantities thereof to the Dela- 
ware Breakwater, as well as for other 
purposes. John C. Leiper, the son of 
George, is still engaged in the same 
business, and has his quarries on Rid- 
ley creek, formerly known as the Cros- 
by quarries. 

John K. Kane, Esq., late Judge of 
Admiralty, and of the U. S. District 
Court for the Eastern District of Penn- 
sylvania, married Jane, a daughter of 
Thomas Leiper, and was the father of 
the latewell-known Arctic explorer. Dr. 
Elisha Kent Kane, a surgeon in the U. 
S. Navy, and of Gen. 'I'homas Leiper 
Kane, late Colonel of the famous 
"Bucktails," 42d Penna. Vols., and 
of Robert Patterson Kane, Esq., both 
members of the Philadelphia Bar. Dr. 



HISTORY OF GIIESTEK. 



241 



John K. Kane, of Wilmington, Dela- 
ware, and Miss Bessie Kane. 

The family of Patterson are of Scotch- 
Irish descent ; that is,~ John Patterson, 
born about 1640, emigrated to the vi- 
cinity of Derry, Ireland, from Scotland, 
where he married and had ason Robert, 
&:c. See "A Record of the Family of 
Robert Patterson, (the elder), &c., 
printed in 1847." Robert, b. in Ulster, 
May 20, 1743, grand-son of the above 
named Robert, and third in descent of 
the same name, emigrated to America 
in 1768, settled in Bucks County, Pa., 
and married Amy H. Ewing, {Jk Jan. 
20, 1 75 1, dau. of Maskell and Mary,) 
May 9, 1774, being at that time Princi- 
pal of Wilmington Academy. During 
the Revolution he became Military In- 
structor for three companies formed in 
Delaware ; he having served a term of 
service in the Army before leaving Ire- 
land. In 1779, he was made Profes- 
sor of Mathematics in the University 
at Philadelphia, a position he held for 
35 years. In 1805, Mr. Jefferson ap- 
pointed him Director of the U. S. 
Mint, in place of Mr. Boudinot, who 
resigned. In 1799, he was a member 
of and President of the Select Council 
of Philadelphia, and in i8i6, the Uni- 
versity of Pa. conferred on him the 
degree of LL. D. The Doctor resigned 
as Director of the Mint, about July i, 
1824, and died July 22, 1824, in his 
82nd year. His wife died May 23, 
1844. They had eight children, six of 
whom lived to maturity and five mar- 
ried. Dr. Samuel Moore, a physician 
of New Jersey, married Mary Patterson, 
their second child. He succeeded the 
Doctor as Director of the Mint at Phila- 
delphia, in 1824, and retired fromlhat 
office in 1835. He graduated at the 
University of Pa. in 1798, and located 
at Dublin, in Bucks County. See Gen. 



Davis' His. of Bucks Co., 671-2 & 3. 
The sixth child of Robert and Amy, 
was the late Dr. Robert Maskell Pat- 
terson, b. Mar. 23, 1787, d. Sept. 5, 
1854. He graduated at the University 
of Penna., in 1808, m. Helen Hamil- 
ton Leiper, dau. of Thomas and Eliza- 
beth, April 20, 1814, (/a April2o, 1792, 
d. Dec. 17, 1 87 1.) In 1828 he was 
elected Professor of Natural Philoso- 
phy in the University of Virginia. On 
July 18, 1835, h^ ^^^s appointed by 
President Jackson, Director of the Mint 
at Philadelphia, and held that position 
until July i, 185 1, when he resigned. 
He left six children , of whom the young- 
est, Mary Gray, ;;;. Oct. 7, 1847, Sam- 
uel Field, well-known in Chester and 
Delaware County, where his ancestors 
resided, and where he lived many years 
with his family. His only living chil- 
dren are Robert Patterson and Mary 
Stanley Field. When Mr. and Mrs. 
Field were married, Frank Field, John 
C. Leiper and myself were among his 
groomsmen. 

In the American Historical Record, 
I vol. 543, will be found an article 
under the heading of "The first Rail- 
roads and Locomotives in the United 
States," written by Theo. Livingston 
Chase, as follows : "In an article refer- 
ring to this subject, on page 503 of the 
Record, the writer 'S,' quotes the His- 
tory of Delaware County, as his au- 
thority that ' the first railroad in the 
United States was built in Ridley town- 
ship in 1806, by Thomas Leiper,' and 
states that the author of that work ob- 
tained his information from the late 
Hon. George G. Leiper, the eldest son 
of Thomas Leiper. It will be ap- 
parent from the consideration of the 
facts hereinafter presented, that Mr. 
(Judge) Leiper was mistaken in the 
year he gave, as that in which the road 



•242 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



\vasl)uilt. * * In a note on p- 389 I 
of tlic History of Delaware County, \ 
the author says: ' Previous to engaging 
in the raih-oad enterprise, Mr. Thomas 
Leiper employed a mill-wright from 
Scotland named Somerville, to lay a 
track sixty yards in length, at a grade 
of one inch and a half to the yard, he 
having seen a similar one in Scotland,' 
iVc. This experiment of Somerville 
was made on land adjoining the ' Bull's 
Head Tavern,' in Philadelphia, and 
not until the year 1809, (in Sept.); 
therefore, as it occurred previous to 
Leiper'' !> engaging in the railroad enter- 
prise, there certainly had been no rail- 
road constructed by him in Ridley 
township before that year. 

There is, however, other evidence 
to prove that it was not built until the 
year following, viz. 1810. In the 
Delaware County Republican, of Feb. 
24, i860, the Editor states, that he 
was in possession of a memorandum 
book kept by Thomas Leiper' s own 
hand, commencing in 1807, and end- 
ing in 1810. He says ; 'It appears 
therein that he (Leiper) contemplated 
the road in 1809.' This date corres- 
ponds with the year that the experi- 
ment was made at the Bull's Head 
Tavern. In May of that year, (1809) 
he made an estimate for a railway 
three-fourths of a mile long, from his 
quarries to the landing place on Crum 
Creek, (at the head of tide) to be 
built of wood, opposite to which he 
has a short profile of the work. The 
estimate is not complete, and the idea, 
as far as the work is concerned, seems 
to have been abandoned until Jan. 
or Feb. of the following year. He 
then estimates three-fourths of a mile 
of the railroad minutely, and arrives 
at the conclusion that it will cost, in- 
cluding the survey, $1592 47-iooths. 



It would seem from tliis, that the road 
was commenced in 18 10, and com- 
pleted that year. In view of this 
testimony, I think it may be safely 
assumed, that three years previous to 
the building of the Leiper road, the 
first railroad in America was built on 
the western slope of Beacon Hill, near 
Boston." 

The following extract from the pro- 
ceedings of "The Delaware County 
Institute of Science," held Feb. i, 
1873, settles the dispute, and fixes 
the date when Mr. Leiper built his 
railroad : " Mr. John M. Bromall read 
Dr. (Joshua) Ash's answer to the ques- 
tion, 'When and where was the first 
railroad built in the United States.' 
It gave credit to that built by Thomas 
Leiper, to move stone from his quarries 
in Nether Providence-, (not Ridley,) 
and built Oct. 1809, as shown by the 
original draft made by John Thomp- 
son. The original map was presented 
to the Institute by Dr. Ash, who pro- 
cured it from J. Edgar Thompson, 
President of the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road Company, son of the draughts- 
man. Dr. Smith explained the dis- 
crepancies in the date. He obtained 
those in his history from the son of 
Thomas Leiper. He subsequently as- 
certained there was doubt about it, and 
believed his history incorrect in the 
particular, that the road was built in 
1806." 

In this connection it may be in- 
teresting to know that the first rail- 
road in the United States was that 
built in 1807, on Beacon Hill, by Silas 
Whitney, and the second road was 
Thomas Leiper's railroad in Ridley, 
construc-ted and finished in Oct. 1809. 
The next railway was that laid in 
Nashua, N. H., in 1825 ; the fourth 
was the one laid down at Quincy 



HISTORY OF CIIESTEli. 



243 



Granite Quarries, in Massachusetts, in 
1826 and '27, and the fifth, the great 
enterprise at Mauch Chunk, Pennsyl- 
vania, nine miles in length, to which 
the former ones were mere child's play. 
The latter road will be found fully de- 
scribed in my "Sketches of the Le- 
high Valley," published in the Bethle- 
Jiem Daily Times, during the summer 
of 1872. 

I cut from the Times and put in book 
form, two copies of those sketches, il- 
lustrated them handsomely, and gave 
one to the Historical Society of Pa., 
and retained the other. My friend, 
Augustus H. Leibert, of Bethlehem, 
also made and illustrated a copy for 
himself. 

Thomas and Elizabeth Gray Leiper 
had the following children : Betsey, 
who m. Robert Taylor, (and had issue. 
Dr. George G., Janfes' L., Samuel L. 
& Thomas L. Taylor)'; Martha, ;;/. to 
the Rev. Dr. Jacob T. Janeway ; Helen 
Hamilton, m. Dr. Robert M. Patter- 
son ; Ann Gray, m. to George G. 
Thomas ; Jane, who ;//. Judge John 
K. Kane ; Julia, m. to Col. HeMy 
Taylor, of A^irginia ; George G. m. 
Eliza S. Thomas ; William J. who d. 
single ; Samuel M., m. Mary B. Lewis, 
and James who m. Ann, daughter of 
Peirce and Christiana Crosby. He d. 
leaving an only child, Elizabeth Gray, 
who m. John Holmes, of Philadelphia. 
She d. Feb. i', 1873, leaving several 
children. 

George Gray Leiper, son of Thomas 
and Elizabeth, m. Eliza S. Thomas, 
and had issue, Thomas, John C, 
George, Elizabeth, Mary Ann, (who 
married Dr. Jesse Kersey Bonsall, of 
Chester, brother of Mrs. Dr. William 
Gray, of Chester. After her death, Dr. 
Bonsall married Martha Lee, of Phila- 
delphia, both now deceased. He left 



no issue by either wife ;) and Martha, 
that I can recall. My friend John 
C. Leiper married Mary, a daughter 
of Peter ajid Rebecca Fayssoux. Cap- 
tain Fayssoux was a military store- 
keeper in the service of the United 
States. His ancestors were French 
Huguenots who fled from France and 
settled in South Carolina. Mrs. Fays- 
soux was a daughter of Gen. William 
Irvine, a Colonel in the Pennsylvania 
Line, (commissioned Jan. 9, 1776,) 
and Brigadier General of the Revolu- 
tionary Army, and after the Revolu- 
tion, Commissary General of the U. S. 
Army. Gen. Irvine married a Miss 
Callender ; and his son, Callender Ir- 
vine, succeeded him as Commissary 
General. Another daughter of Gen. 
William Irvine married Dr. Charles 
S. Lewis, of Philadelphia. A daugh- 
ter of theirs, Mary, married Samuel 
M. Leiper, a brother of George G., 
William J. and James Leiper. 

John C. and Mary Leiper, of " Cros- 
by Place," Ridley, have the following 
children: George G., Rebecca, Ed- 
wards Fayssoux, Eliza, Barnard Bee, 
and John Henry Leiper. Their son, 
Barnard, is named after Gen. Barnard 
Bee, of the Confederate forces, killed 
at the battle of Bull's Run, a relative. 
Mrs. Leiper had two brothers whom I 
knew, Clement and Edwards. The 
former was a Cadet with me at the 
U. S. Military Academy. 

Mrs. Samuel M. Leiper' s brother, 
Callender Irvine Lewis, was an old 
acquantance of mine, and was quite 
well known in Delaware County and 
Philadelphia, from the extraordinary 
resemblance he bore in personal ap- 
pearance, head, weight and beauty, to 
the great Napoleon. One of Mrs. 
Samuel M. Leiper' s sons. Col. Thomas 
Irvine Leiper, m. Emma, daughter of 



244 



HISTORY OF CIIESTEK. 



Young S. Walter, of Chester, Pa., 
they have issue, Mary, Virginia, Nina 
and Let ilia. 



XXV. 

J)k. Samuel Anderson, frcciucntly 
mentioned in this work, was not a re- 
lative of Major William Anderson, 
that 1 am aware of. He was a very 
prominent and popular man in the 
county in his day. He was a tall, 
slender, dignified gentleman, dressed 
with great care and neatness, always 
in dark clothing, and was very active 
in church affairs, being a strict member 
of St. Paul's Church. He was born 
in 1774, and served repeatedly in the 
State Legislature, was Speaker of the 
House in 1833, Representative in Con- 
gress from 1827 to '29, and died at 
Chester, Pa., Jan. 17, 1850. His 
widow, Mrs. Sarah Richards Ander- 
son, died in Chester, Nov. 5, 1870, 
at the advanced age of ninety-five 
years. She was born in the county, 
and was the youngest daughter of 
Jacob Richards, the elder of that name. 
She was the widow Moore when she 
married the Doctor, and although blind 
for the last twenty years of her life, 
took a lively interest in passing events, 
and being well-to-do, she had atten- 
dants to read to her the papers con- 
taining the daily occurrences of the 
town and country. She retained all her 
other faculties to the last, had no dis- 
ease of any kind, and finally slept her 
life away without pain or suffering. 
She had six children, all of whom sur- 
vive her. 

Mrs. Anderson was not, however, a 
remarkable instance of longevity in 
Chester or its vicinity. The healthi- 
ness of the town and whole county 
is i)roverbial. Tlic water especially, 



is exceedingly beneficial to the human 
system, and accounts in a great mea- 
sure for the health of the inhabitants, 
'I'he people of Chester have no occa- 
sion to resort to Saratoga or the White 
Suljjhur Springs, for the benefit of the 
waters ; those at home being of a 
similar medical character. If the 
healthiness of Chester people should 
undergo a change, it will be because 
they cease to use the well water. Dr. 
Joshua Owen, of Chester, says: (Di- 
rectory of 1859,) "We have no en- 
demic disease, and our epidemics are 
few, and of the mildest form of the 
prevailing malady. Fever is an ele- 
ment in the diseases of man attendant 
upon almost every instance of aberra- 
tion from health ; even the slightest 
cold. But whatever its concomitants, 
it assumes the type and character of 
an intermittent, remittent or continu- 
ous fever. But these fevers are be- 
lieved to be as few and mild here as 
upon any other inhabited section of 
the globe; and so well is it supported 
by experience, that where death oc- 
curs from fever, uncomplicated, our 
citizens are in the habit of suspecting 
something wrong in the treatment. 
Dysentery, one of the grave diseases 
of our climate, is scarcely known here, 
not averaging one case in two or three 
years. Bilious fever, too, so much 
dreaded, is extremely rare, occurring 
not oftener than dysentery, and ty- 
phoid fever, so tedious, has not given 
us ten cases in the last ten years. Liver 
complaints and bilious diseases gene- 
rally, find no fitted soil at Chester. 

" Within a few years the population 
of Chester has largely increased, and 
though the writer has had opportuni- 
ties of observation, he cannot call to 
mind a solitary case of intermittent 
fever or chills, contracted by any of the 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



246 



new settlers; notwithstanding some of 
these, from employment and exposure, 
are made the most liable to disease. 
One family of eight children, living 
most exposed to the influence of the 
river and fattest land, has enjoyed un- 
interrupted good health for ten years. 
Extending the inquiry along the shore 
below Chester, embracing therein one 
dozen farms, some of the houses of 
which are located upon the banks of. 
the river, and none from it a quarter ' 
of a mile, including families, numer- 
ous city boarders, laboring men in 
harvest, and servants, the amount of 
sickness of every kind at each of these 
farms, is not worth to the physician 
ten dollars a year, at the charge of one 
dollar a visit. The largest and most 
celebrated boarding house in this sec- 
tion of the country, situated near the 
river, two miles below Chester, John 
J. Thurlow's, every summer filled to 
overflowing, including a herd of little 
children, does not average twenty dol- 
lars a year for medical aid. On the 
tarm adjoining this, there has been 
but three cases of sickness within the 
last eight years ; and a farm nearest 
the river, one and a half miles below 
Chester, has been exempt from dis- 
ease for a number of years. At the 
largest and best farm in the county, 
lying one mile above Chester, and 
about half that distance from the river, 
(Henry Effinger's,) there has not been 
a case of sickness for eight years. 
Another large farm,, one quarter of 
a mile above this, has been blessed 
with uninterrupted good health for 
stilTa longer period. Leaving these 
more notable instances, and taking a 
general view of the inhabitants, it is 
no rare circumstance to find large 
families in the neighborhood, living, 
one, two and three consecutive years. 



without occasion for medical aid for 
disease; whilst there is no one place 
that can be given in illustration of 
much sickness. As localities differ in 
amount and kind of disease, so do the 
distinct races of men, differ in their 
susceptibility to particular maladies, 
and to the influence of particular loca- 
tions. Yet these difi'erent nationali- 
ties find at Chester the same freedom 
from disease. The Irish, with their 
strong affinity for agues and fevers, 
live here most exposed with compara- 
tive impunity. Even at the period of 
the early settlements, when, from the 
uncultivated condition of the country, 
disease would be more frequent and 
violent, the instances of longevity de- 
note a healthy location." 

In 1832 the Cholera, which ravaged 
other parts of the United States, did 
not visit Chester at all, although the 
old people were much alarmed. I re- 
member that my grandmother made 
me carry brimstone in a little bag, sus- 
pended by a string around my neck, 
and resting on my breast, tp ward off 
the pestilence, and every child in 
school wore a similar bag, filled with 
powdered brimstone, and the larger 
boys had lumps of it in their pockets, 
just as people now-a-days carry a stolen 
potatoe to keep off the rheumatism. 
Some say a horse-chestnut should be 
added to render the remedy effectual. 

I have already given William Penn's 
evidence, as to the good health enjoyed 
by the Swedes who settled on the banks 
of the Delaware. In Chester, many 
people have reached an extreme old age. 
I can recall Mrs. Rebecca Brobson, 
David Abbott and Samuel Long, who 
all d. about 1867, at advanced ages. 
Mrs. Mary Deshong, ^/. Dec. 29, 1869, 
aged 90 years. Mrs. Mary Engle, d. 
Feb. 2, 1870, aged 94 years. John 



246 



IlISTOllY OF CIIKSTER. 



Fairhiml) Hill. if. at ("licstcr, June 14, 
1870, in his 90th year, having been born 
Dec. 25, 1780. Miss I,ydia Pusey, d. 
April 19, 1872, in her 93d year, and 
five days afterwards, Mrs. Mary Ann 
Taylor d. in her 90th year. Mrs. 
Catharine Ladomus', d. Apl. 10, 1874, 
ageil 84 years ; and I recollect that 
Samuel Lytle, Mrs. Elizabeth Ander= 
son, widow of the Major, " Squire Sam^ 
uel. Smith," father of Miss Maria, one 
of my old Sunday School teachers at St; 
Paul's Church ; Captain Thomas Rob- 
inson, and Mrs. Commodore Porter, 
all died at good old ages. I have 
only a partial record of the deaths 
at Chester in the past. I agree with 
Dr. Owen, that the banks of the 
Delaware, notwithstanding its banked 
marshes, and its outside cripples or 
flats, is a remarkably healthy section of 
country. I have known some cases 
of fever and ague, at and near Leiper- 
ville, but very few, and those were 
caused by the overflow of the marshes 
between Darby and Crum Creeks, 
which were allowed to lie imder water 
for several years, owing to the negli' 
gence or inability of the owner to pay 
for repairing the banks ; but when 
that was done, the chills disappeared 
from the vicinity. 

Mrs. Mary Deshong, mentioned 
above as dying Dec. 29, 1869, Avas the 
widow and relict of Peter Deshong, an 
old inhabitant of Chester. He was a 
tall, slender man with dark hair and 
very pale complexion, and was noted 
as the last gentleman of Chester, who 
wore his hair done up in the old fash- 
ioned queue. During the Revolution, 
one Peter Deshong, miller, (father of 
Peter Deshong, late of Chester I pre- 
sume,) was made one of the keepers of 
the Gates of Philadelphia by the British 
military authorities, during the time 



they had possession of the city, in 
Sept., 1778 ; he was tried for Treason, 
before C. J. McKean, and acquitted, 
it being proved that he accepted the 
position with reluctance, and that he 
was so lenient to the inhabitants that he 
was deprived of his office by the British. 
Wescotf s Philadelphia. — Sunday Dis- 
patch, Apl. 7,1872. He was the father 
of John O. Deshong, Maurice W. and 
Louisa. Mrs. Deshong was Post Mis- 
tress at Chester for a number of years 
previous to 1 834. Women seem to have 
been appointed Post Mistresses at Ches- 
ter, frequently. Charlotte W. Doyle, 
a widow, served in that capacity re- 
cently for several years. Her daugh- 
ter, Lydia C, married Samuel Riddle, 
the well known manufacturer at Glen 
Riddle. In 181 7, Mary Davenport 
was Post Mistress at Chester ; her en- 
tire pay amounted to ^132.77. The 
salary is now twenty-four hundred 
dollars per annum. In the same year 
Jacob D. Barker, of Switzerland, was 
Post Master at Marcus Hook, his in- 
come from that source being $20.59. 
John O. Deshong married Emeline, 
a daughter of the late Dr. Job H. Ter- 
rill, and has three sons, Alfred, John 
O., Jr., Clarence, and a daughter 
Louisa. The late William Eyre, Jr., 
of Chester, married, 3 mo. 4, 1835, 
Ann Louisa, another daughter of Dr. 
Terrill, and the present Joshua P. Eyre, 
of Chester, is their only son. John 
O. Deshong kept a dry goods ard 
grocery store in Chester, when 1 was 
a boy, about 1836. There were seve- 
ral other stores of the same character 
carried on in tlie town then or pre- 
viously, by Thomas Clyde, Jesse M. 
Justice, J. Ashmead Eyre and Joshua 
P. and William Eyre. Maurice W. 
Deshong removed in 1855, to Phila- 
deli)hia, with his family, and tlicd there 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



247 



Oct. 9, 1876, in his 68th year, leaving 
3 sons and 3 daughters. 

In the vicinity of Chester there are 
numerous cases of people reaching ex- 
treme old age, the most noted of which 
is that of Thomas Button, who, on 
the 2nd of Feb. 1869, celebrated his 
one hundred and first birthday. He 
was born in Aston, Feb. 2, 1769. He 
lived about seven months after the 
celebration of his looth year. On 
that occasion there assembled at his old 
homestead, which was the place of his 
birth, over two hundred of his descen- 
dants and family connections. He 
had been married three times, and of 
eleven children, five were living and 
present, besides nineteen grand-chil- 
dren, and twenty- three great-grand- 
children. His direct descendants at 
that time numbered seventy-eight. At 
the gathering, the family history and 
traditions were related. The ancestor 
of the family settled in Aston in the 
days of William Penn, and had enter- 
tained the founder of the Province at 
his house. Many of the early settlers, 
it was stated, selected large flat rocks 
near cooling springs, for their places of 
residence, and built their cabins or log 
houses on them. This family cherishes 
the memory of such a rock on their 
estate. Mr. Button erected the house 
in which he lived in 1790, on the site 
of one still more ancient. He was 
a tanner by trade, and carried on that 
business for many years, and intro- 
duced a steam engine into his estab- 
lishment, which is said to have been 
the first used in Belaware County, and 
many doubted the feasibility of the ex- 
periment. For four years subsequent 
to 1808, he took charge of Friends' 
Mission for the civilization of the 
Seneca Indians, in the Albany Reser- 
vation, New York, at the time when 



the celebrated Corn-planter was their 
Chief. Mr. Button was six feet in 
height, temperate in his habits, used 
tobacco, had a strong constitution, 
enjoyed good health, retired from busi- 
ness in his 77th year, and lived a quiet 
life, free from excitement. All the com- 
panions of his youth departed before 
him, except, perhaps, an aged friend, 
Phoebe Thomas, who died in Wilming- 
ton, Bel., i mo. 19, 1875, a daughter of 
Robert and Elizabeth Mendejihall, of 
Concord, who celebrated her looth 
year, on July 7, 1870, when some of 
her direct descendants to the fifth 
generation were present. In 1792, 
she married Gideon Thomas, of New- 
town, at Friends' meeting, at Barby. 
She was a widow over half a centu- 
ry, having had three children, Sarah, 
Robert and Ann. She had in 1869, 
living, about fifty great-grand-children, 
two great-great-grand-children, four 
nieces, aged respectively, 95, 92, 85, 
and 79, and a grand-nephew 86 years of 
age. Until the age of 95, Mrs. Thomas 
was an active women, and drove to 
meeting, and to visit her friends and 
relatives, alone with her horse and 
chair. Her grandfather, Benjamin 
Mendenhall, came to this country in 
1686, from a town called Mildenhall, 
(originally the family name), in Wilt- 
shire, England. His sister Mary, mar- 
ried Nathaniel Newlin, a prominent 
man in his day. Ann, a daughter of 
Benjamin, became the second wife of 
John Bartram, the distinguished Ame- 
rican Botanist, on the nth of 10 mo., 
1729. Ann Thomas, a daughter of 
Gideon and Phebe, of Newtown, mar- 
ried Nathaniel Speakman, and is now a 
widow, residing with her son-in-law, 
Philip Paxson, in East Bradford, Ches- 
ter County, with whom Mrs. Thomas 
was also residing when her looth year 



248 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



was celebrated, and when her grand- 
son, Thomas H. Si)eakman, Esq., read 
an interesting family history of the 
centenarian and her branches down to 
the fifth generation, from which the 
above facts are gathered. At the time 
of the above event, Mrs. Thomas, her 
daughter, grand-daughter, and her g. 
grand-children, were all living under 
one roof. John Bartram's first wife, 
was Mary daughter of Richard and 
Elizabeth Maris, of Springfield ; they 
were married 2 mo. 25, 1723. 

Cyriis Mendenhall, residing at pre- 
sent in Cincinnati, Ohio, says: "Ben- 
jamin Mendenhall and his brother, 
John, emigrated from Wiltshire, Eng- 
land, and settled in Concord, in 1683. 
The brothers were then grown up men. 
Benjamin married 2 mo. 1 7, 1689, Ann, 
the daughter of Robert and Hannah 
Pennell, of Middletown ; their youngest 
son, Robert, then in his 2 2d year, 
married 13 of 9 mo. 1734, Phoebe, 
the youngest daughter of Philip and 
Ann Taylor, of Thornbury, at Birming- 
ham Meeting; after her death he mar- 
ried secondly, Elizabeth, the widow of 
John Hatton, of Concord, 6 mo. 23, 
1762 ; their youngest daughter, Phoebe 
(Thomas), was born 7 mo. 1770. The 
maternal ancestry of Phoebe Thomas, 
maybe stated thus: Ezekiel Harlan, 
of Kennett, son of George and Eliza- 
beth Harlan, from Ireland, was ;;/. 
in 1706 to Ruth, the daughter of 
Richard Bufifington, the immigrant. 
Their daughter, Elizabeth, ;//. Wil- 
liam White, whose daughter, also 
named Elizabeth, was w. in 1755, to 
John Hatton, of Concord. There 
were three brothers Mendenhall, who 
came from England to this country. 
John is first mentioned as being in 
Concord in 1683, Benjamin and Moses 
were there in 1685. Moses returned 



to England, where his descendants now 
reside. Benjamin was a wheelwright, 
and his children's names were Benjamin, 
Jr., Joseph, Moses, Hannah, Samuel, 
Rebecca, Ann, Nathan, and Robert, 
(whowasborn 7mo. 7, i7i3,died6mo. 
23, 1785.) In 1 7 14 he was a member of 
the Assembly, and died in 1740, at an 
advanced age, leaving his widow sur- 
viving him. Their son Benjamin, m. 
Lydia, the daughter of Owen Roberts, 
of Gwynedd, and Hannah ;;/. Thomas 
Marshall. 

John Mendenhall, Dr. Smith says, 
was one of the earliest settlers in 
Concord; m. in 1685, Elizabeth, the 
daughter of George Maris, and was an 
influential and active member of the 
Society of Friends, and in 1697, gave 
the ground now occupied by the Con- 
cord Friends' Meeting House and grave 
yard to the Society for that purpose. 
In 1708, having been a widower for 
some time, he married secondly, Hes- 
ter Dix. His children's names by his 
first wife were George, John and Aaron, 
It is not known whether he had any 
by his second wife. He was one of 
the original shareholders of the Con- 
cord mill." 

Gilbert Cope, a well-informed gen- 
ealogist, says: "The Mendenhalls — 
John, Benjamin and Moses — did come 
from Wiltshire, as writings of that date 
will show ; but the last did not re- 
main long. Having returned to Eng- 
gland, he may have entertained the 
idea of coming again to this country, 
but, in the language of that time, 
' he sedd his mother would not let 
him goe back.' This was a veritable 
case of ' three brothers,' although but 
two remained in this country. Few 
persons, besides genealogists, are aware 
of the prevalence of this tradition of 
' three brothers,' in nearly everv fam- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



249 



ily ; while in a vast majority of cases 
it merely denotes absence of know- 
ledge, or may be compared to an 
algebraic symbol, which represents an 
unknown quantity." 

The family of Philip Mendenhall, a 
former resident of Chester County, 
have an old book, in which is written, 
" Philip Mendenhall, his Almanack, 
for the year 1772," and through it are 
bound leaves of paper, on which Philip 
noted important events that occurred 
while he resided on his farm in what 
is now Delaware County. Under date 
of April 25, 1772, occurs this item: 
"At or near 8 o'clock in the morn- 
ing, the roaring of an earthquake was 
heard, succeeded by a shake which made 
the house to tremble. A second, ensued 
soon after the first had ceased, which 
was more violent." Mr. Mendenhall 
seems to have used this book for en- 
tries, for a long period subsequent to 
its date, for forty-two years afterwards, 
is the following : " The 1 8th of 12th 
month, my sons came home from camp, 
in the year of our Lord, 1814," which 
shows that the young men bore arms in 
defence of the State, when the British 
threatened Philadelphia at that time. 

At the Centennial Exhibition in 
Philadelphia, Oct. 19, 1876, on '' Dcl- 
atuare Day,'''' there occurred an inter- 
esting event, Mr. Dell Noblit, of 
Wilmington, Delaware, was present, 
and celebrated there his 99th birth day. 
Dell Noblit, son of John & Mary, 
of Middletown,wasbornOct. 19, 1777. 
His father was born at the same place 
in 1 714, being 63 years of age at the 
time his son was born. Dell Nob- 
lit has had 16 children, 48^. children, 
38^. g. children, and 2 g. g. g. chil- 
dren ; in all 99, of whom 62 are liv- 
ing. He ?H. (ist) Elizabeth Wyall; 
and had Stephen, Hamilton and Mar- 



garet, ^\ dead; (2ndly,) Elizabeth 
Brattin, of New-Castle, Del., and had 
by her, James B., dec'd ; Maria, m. 
Gregg Chandler ;y<?/w// Albert, dec'd ; 
Eliza, m. John S. Likens, of Wilming- 
ton ; Dell; Joshua H., dec'd ; Louisa, 
J. C. m. Rev. Charles E. Murray, of 
Philadelphia; Joseph C, and four 
others who died in infancy. 

Dell Noblit (2nd), an old friend 
of mine, is the President of the Corn 
Exchange National Bank, of Philadel- 
phia, and a member of the firm of 
Noblit, Brown & Noblit. He married 
Elizabeth Curtis, daughter of Samuel 
& Anna, of Philadelphia ; they have 
issue living, Henry D., John, Joseph 
C, Charles E., Dell, Bessie, and Ag- 
nes Noblit. 

Friends' records are so carefully kept 
that it is not necessary for me to be 
very explicit concerning families be- 
longing to the Society. But these are 
not solitary instances of longevity, and 
as such things are always interesting, 
and especially so, when the names of 
the persons mentioned are familiar to 
one's ears, and connected with our 
section of the county, I transcribe from 
some old notes of my grandfather. Dr. 
William Martin, the following : 

"Died, Nov. 24, 1790, Mary New- 
lin, aged 100 years, 9 mos. 15 days. 
Nine weeks before her death she walked 
a mile, and retained her senses and 
eyesight to the last. She was born in 
Thornbury Township, Chester Co." 

"Died, Feb. 1790, in Haverford 
Township, Mrs. Elizabeth Humphreys, 
aged eighty-seven years." 

" James Massey, of Chester County, 
in the ninety-third year of his age, 
(1790) a hearty, hale man, rides on 
horseback, and within three years, has 
rode forty miles a day. He has been 
a great Fox-hunter, generally healthy. 



250 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



brought up in the hihorious employ- 
ment of clearing and settling a farm. 
In the early part of his life, he was 
troubled occasionally with rheumatism, 
but now scarcely ever feels it, unless on 
drinking cider or spirituous liquors. 
His eyesight and memory are good, 
reading without spectacles. He re- 
members William Penn, (at the last 
Indian Treaty he held), sufficiently to 
describe his person. He died 1792." 

" Ann Vernon, of Chester County, 
was born early in 1702, now living, of 
a healthy, active disposition, her hear- 
ing and eyesight good ; hearing some- 
what impaired 1792, died 1793." 

" Lewis Davis, of Chester (now Dela- 
ware) County, in the eighty-sixth year 
of his age, a hearty, hale man, bred 
up to the business of a weaver, but 
since his apprenticeship, has followed 
farming; has a great mechanical turn 
of mind, (as I have been informed), 
captious, uneven in his temper, ap- 
pears to be a stranger to those soft 
sensibilities (sic) of the human heart 
that increase our resemblance to the 
Divine Essence whence we spring. 
He died 1793." 

"Mr. Thomas Jenks, a gentleman 
from Bucks County, was born in 1700, 
in the Province of New Jersey, of 
Anglo-Welsh parents, who died when 
he was very young, and left him — to 
use his own expression — like the spar- 
row on the house top. 

He was brought up in the business 
of a farmer, which at that time was 
very laborious. He was temperate in 
his habits of eating and drinking, un- 
less we except the practice of taking a 
dram of rum in the morning before 
breakfast, which he continued for near 
seventy years of his life. He had a 
great aversion to mixed liquors, and 
seldom drank anything l)ut water ; his 



health has been but little inicrru]jtcd 
with sickness, but remarkable from 
suffering from accidents. His memory 
is still good, and enables him to relate 
many events of his life with facility ; 
he has often been called upon by the 
courts of law as a living record. His 
eyesight and hearing are remarkably 
good, and his strength sufficient to 
enable him to walk fifty miles, (which 
he has done lately, 1 790,) in the course 
of a week. He cannot ride on horse- 
back; his nights are rather tedious 
from want of sleep. He is a .small- 
sized man, his countenance remarka- 
bly sprightly, and brightens up when 
relating past feats of his life. He has 
lived to see the works of his own hands 
come to maturity. He has lived to 
see the desert haunts of wild beasts 
and savages become the seat of polished 
society. He has lived to see his own 
children and grand-children well settled 
in life around him ; and he has lived 
to see his country, after struggling 
through the horrors of a cruel war, at 
length established in the enjoyment of 
peace, freedom and independence." 
In 1859, I requested a young man 
in my office, Richard Bond, to write 
to his mother, who resided at New- 
town, Bucks County, to make some 
inquiries concerning the wives of my 
great-grandfather, John Martin, who 
once resided there with his sister, Mrs. 
Jane (Alexander) Bartram, and died 
there. In her reply she mentioned 
that she had conversed with a Mr. 
Jenks, aged 97 years, who said he knew 
my ancestor well, but did not remem- 
ber the maiden names of either of his 
wives ; that neither were Bucks County 
women, nor were their names either 
Douglass or Story ; that they were 
both Philadelphia women. But to re- 
sume Dr. Martin's record. 



UISTollY OF CIIESTE]^ 



251 



'• Mrs. Ann Davis, of Delaware Co., 
in her S5thyear, (1790,) the daughter 
of Mr. Bethel, in the 50th year of his 
age, by a young wife. She is of a deli- 
cate, infirm constitution, and appears to 
have contended with pulmonary con- 
sumption for the last fifty years of her 
life, and during a greater portion of 
the time has made use of some pre- 
jjaration of opium. Blessed with a 
liappy, cheerful, equable temper, this 
amiable woman is remarkably lively 
and agreeable, and appears exempted 
from that peevishness and disrelish for 
everything, that seems too often the 
accompaniment of old age. Fond of 
the society of young people, her com- 
pany is not less eagerly sought after 
by them. Educated with delicacy and 
indulgence, she can take but little ex- 
ercise, but she is never idle, accus- 
tomed to habits of industry (which 
were formerly not neglected as an in- 
gredient of education.) She is always 
knitting, spinning, or performing some 
other necessary duty that domestic 
wants require. She lives with her three 
daughters, all single, who, by an affec- 
tionate attention in discharging the 
offices of filial duty, have rendered 
her life agreeable and happy. She 
lost all of her teeth by the time she 
was 60, many coming away apparently 
sound. Her grandfather was near 90 
when he died. She was born in the 
place where Darby now is, and re- 
members playing with the Indian chil- 
dren of the neighboring wigwams. 
July 23, 1795, Mrs. Davis died, being 
90 years old, less 3 months. 

"In the counties of Bucks and Mont- 
gomery, about 18 miles from Phila- 
delphia, there are 12 farms adjoining 
each other, which were, in the year 
1793, owned and occupied by the fol- 
lowing venerable and re])utal)le citizens 



John Irwin, aged 98 Jacub Fry, agcil 74 

Herman Verkiss, " 90 Thomas Craven, " 81 

Samuel Shoemaker, " 73 Giles Craven, " 78 

Samuel Irwin, " 72 Anthony Scout, " 94 

Andrew Buskirk, " 76 Jacob Gilbert, " 93 

Isaac Bellew, " 77 Charles Garrison, " 79 

The ages were noted in 1793, but 
the first nine were living in 1796 ; the 
three last died before that period, at 
the age set opposite their respective 
names. Another list is as follows. 
The ages given opposite the names, 
are the ages at decease, I suppose. 



David Reese, 
Benj. Haycock, 
Richard Dutton, 
Mary Taylor, 
Capt. Grenaway, 
Agnes Davidson, 
Betly Rowan, 
Thomas Say, 
Matthias Fultz, 



aged 1 



Mrs. Morris, aged 85 



83 Ann Davis, 

90 Joseph Trimble, 

87 Abigal Vernon, 

80 Bethia Sommans, 

80 Henry Effinger, 

80 Isabella McAuley, 

87 John Saunders, 

94 F. Proctor, 



The genealogy of the Dutton family 
states that Richard Dutton was born 
in 1 71 1, and died in 1795, thus making 
him only 84. 

To return to a later day. Judge Geo. 
G. Leiper, d. 11 mo. 9, 1868, aged 84 
yrs. Susan Dutton d. Feb. 21, 1870, 
aged 83 yrs. Thomas McCullough, of 
Ridley, d. in 1866, aged 94 years. 
Ezekiel West, of Chester County, d. 
April 21, 1873, aged 118 years, and 
Margaret McConnell, of Chester, d. 
there May 27, 1873, ^g^*^ ^°° years. 

There died on the 22d of Jan. 1874, 
at Bustleton, Pennsylvania, the Rev. 
Isaac James, M. D., aged 87 years, 
less 6 days. He is supposed to have 
been the oldest Methodist clergyman 
in the world at the time of his death. 
He was born at Radnor, Delaw^are 
County, Pa., on the 28th of Jan. 1777, 
in a house that had been occupied by 
three generations of his ancestry. His 
father's house was the first preaching 
place of the Methodists in that section, 
and he was, therefore, early brought 
under Methodist influences. In his 



i^oi: 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



i^tli )ear. (in 1790,) he was convened 
anil joined the AI. K. Church. About 
1799, he was licensed to exhort, and 
was appointed steward of Chester and 
jonesburi,^ Cir( nils in iSoi. He was 
ordained deacon by liishop Asbury, 
April i6, 1806, and ordained elder by 
Bishop Morris, April i, 1819. He 
married Henrietta, the daughter of 
Colonel Thomas Potts, of Coventry, 
Chester County. The great want of 
good medical advice, in his day, in- 
duced him to study medicine, and he 
attended a course in the University of 
Pennsylvania, but graduated at Co- 
lumbia College, N. Y. 

In the Massachusetts Magazine of 
1790, p. 193, I find the following: 

"Died in Marple, Dr. Bernard Van- 
leer, aged 104 years." 

" Died at South-river, Pennsylvania, 
Mrs. Ann Letts, aged 107 years, of 
New York," ib. p. 704. 

"Married at Waynesborough, Pa., 
in Nov. 1790, William R. Atlee, Esq., 
to the only daughter of Major General 
Wayne," ih. p. 703. 

Richard Hill Morris, in a letter 
dated Dec. 5, 1790, addressed to Dr. 
Wm. Martin, says : " You have heard 
that our friend Atlee has changed the 
solitary life of a bachelor for the de- 
lights of matrimony with Miss Wayne, 
and settled in Chester." 

To the deaths of aged people, I add 
some of recent date: "Died at his 
residence in Aston, Sept. 21, 1873, 
George McCracken, Sr., in the looth 
year of his age. Died, Sept. 28, 1873, 
William Morris, of Bethel, in his 88th 
year. Died at Chester, Dec. 4, 1873, 
at the 'Steamboat Hotel,' Mary Ann 
Wilson, aged 98 years." 

Deaths of Aged People, with 
name, age, date of death, and place 
of residence : 



Jolin Worrall,^. 1742, 2d mo. 4th, a. 85 yrs. Edgmont. 
William Wurrall, d. 1826, 12, 23d, a. 96 yrs., Ridley. 
Eliza Worrall, d. 1837, i, 22d, a. 88 yrs., Springfield. 
Ann Ottey, d. 1813, 10, 25lh, a. 89 yrs , Westtown. 
Peter Barand, d. 1870, 5, 17th, a. 86 yrs., N. Provid. 
Edward Marshall, d. 1870, 5, 12th, a. 83 yrs.. Darby. 
Mar>- Johnson, d. 1870, 8, 9th, a. go yrs., Middletown. 
William Larkin,,^. 1870, 8, nth, a. 91 yrs., Bethel. 
Abigail Steel, d. 1870, y, 171b, a. 84 yrs., Marple. 
Rachel Moore, d. 1871,9, 5th, a. 8g yrs., U. Provid. 
Ann Urian, d. 1871, 10, 12th, a. 84 yrs.. Darby. 
William Kirk, d. 1871, 10, 20th, a. 83 yrs., U. Darby. 
Dr. Morris C. Shallcross, d. 1871, 11, 27tb, a. 81 yrs. 

late of Darby. 
Ann Sharpless, d. 1871, 11, 30th, a. 82 yrs., relict of 

Henry. 
Susanna Abbott, d. 1871, 11, 26lh, a. 81 yrs., Chester. 
Ann Henvis, d. \'iT2., i, 21st, a. S2 yrs., Upland. 
John Garrett, rf. 1872, i, 19th, a. 83 yrs, Village Green. 
Jane Johnson, d. 1872, i, 28th, a. 80 yrs., Chester. 
George Gibson, d. 1872, i, 26th, a. 86 yrs., Chester. 
Thomas Steel, d. 1872, 3, 21st, a. 84 yrs., Marple. 
Abel Green, d. 1872, 3, 23d, a. 89 yrs., N. Providence. 
George Bittlc, d. 1872, 3, i6th,rt. 92 yrs.. Spread Eagle 
Tacey Litzenberg.fl'. 1872, 4, i8th,rt. 84 yrs. U. Provid. 
Jane Smedley, d. 1873, 6, nth, a. 89 yrs., Middletown. 
Dr. Ralph C. Marsh, d. 1872, 6, 13th, «. 90 yrs.. Con- 
cord. 
Jesse Marshall, d. 1872, 6, 14th, a. 81 yrs,, M. Hook. 
Elizabeth Lewis, ^i'. 1872, 7, 13th, a. 88 yrs, Lapland. 
Margaret Levis, d. 1873, 8, 6th, a. 83 yrs., Springfield. 
Dan'l H. Brooks, d. 1873, 8, 15th, a. 84 yrs., Claymont. 
Anna G. Miller, d. 1872, 9, i6th, a. 95 yrs., Concord. 
Rebecca Humphreys d. 1872, 12, 6th, «. 82 yrs.. Haver- 
ford. 
Henry West, d. 1872, 12, 12th, a. 87 yrs., Chester. 
Samuel Pancoast, rf. 1873, 5, 22d, a. 86 yrs., Marple. 
Jonathan Hood, d. 1861, 5, 17th, a. 85 yrs., Newtown, 

born on the nth of Sept., 1777. 
Cyrus Baker, d. 1861, 11, 1st, a. 85 yrs., Middletown. 
Mary Morgan, d. 1862, i, 8th, a. 81 yrs., Radnor. 
Mary Moore, d. 1862, 2, 15th, a. 81 yrs , Radnor. 
Ann North, rf. 1862, 3, 20th, rt. 84 yrs., Chester town'p. 
Mary Ash, d. 1862, 3, 24th, a. 96 yrs. and 8 months. 
Upper Darby. 

Elizabeth Peters, d. 1862, 3, 26th, a. 90 yrs.. Concord. 
Thomas Jarman, d. 1862, 3, 29th, a. 84 yrs.. Upland. 

Phebe Williams, d. 1862, 4, 10th, a. 84 yrs., Middle- 
town. 

George Wilson, d. 1862, 9, 2d, a. 89 yrs.. Mar. Hook. 

Rachel Crosby, d. 1862, 9, 12th, a. 82 yrs., Chester; 
widow and 2d wife of Peirce Crosby, dec'd. 

Mary Berry, d. 1862, 9, 20th, a. 80 yrs., Ridley. 

Priscilla Thompson, d. 1S62, 12, 30th, a. 81 yrs., Mar- 
cus Hook, 

Ann McMichael, </. 1863, l,9th,rt. 91 yrs., Chester. 

Lydia Cobourn, d. 1863, i, 2d, a. 87 yrs.. Upper Chi- 
chester. 

Ann Hall, d. 1863, 2, 4th, a. 93 yrs.. Concord. 

Parke Shee, d. 1863, 3, 18th, a. 88 yrs.. Concord. 

Robert N. Gamble, (/. 1863,3,6th, a. 83 yrs., Concord. 

Nathan Sharpless, d. 1863, 4, nth, a. 91 yrs., Con- 
cordville. 

Rebecca Weaver, d. 1S63, 6, 2ist,''(i. 91 yrs., Chester. 

Henrietta M. Clyde, d. 1874, 9, 28th, a. %:2.yx%.,'widow 
of Thomas, 0/ Chester. 

John Baldwin, d. 1824, 12, 30th, a. 87, 11. 2., Concord. 

Eliza Home, d. 1876, 3, 25th, a. 94 yrs., Springfield. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



253 



Jesse Jones who is supposed to be i lo 
years old, is still living in West Vin- 
cent, Chester County. He remembers 
following the wagons that hauled flour 
to the Revolutionary Army at Valley 
Forge, in 1777. 

The Media American of J une 8, 1873, 
states: "Jane Smedley, of Middle- 
town, relict of the late Ambrose Smed- 
ley, Sr., was buried on Saturday last 
from the residence of her son, John H. 
Smedley. She was a daughter of John 
and Abigail Hinkson, and sister of Hon. 
Frederick J. Hinkson, of Chester. Her 
birth dates back within 9 years of the 
Declaration of Independence, she being 
in the 89th year of her age. The old 
homestead was built in 1 785, and bears 
that date on one of its chimneys, she 
having resided in it since her marriage 
in 1805. She was the mother of eleven 
children, only three of whom survive 
her, and at her death had thirty-three 
grand-children and thirty-seven g. 
grand-children. 

At the Centennial Exhibition, Phila- 
delphia, Oct. 24, 1876, Martha Ferrol, 
of Chester, aged one hundred and three 
years, was present as a visitor ; she was 
remarkably active on her feet and lively 
in manner, for one of her age. 

In my MS. copy of the History of 
Chester, will be found long lists of 
births, marriages and deaths in Ches- 
ter and its vicinity, in the past. This 
book I shall deposit with the Histo- 
rical Society of Pennsylvania, where 
it can be seen and examined. 



XXVI. 

The Upland UniimoiVi^c. 22, 1829, 
contained the announcement of the 
death of Major William Anderson, of 
Chester, who died on Tuesday, Dec. 
15, 1829, in the 67th year of his age. 



From an obituary therein, I extract the 
following : 

" Mr. Anderson acted a conspicuous and 
highly honorable part in our Revolutionary 
struggle. He was at the siege of Yorktown 
and the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. He 
served throughout the campaign with honor to 
himself, and advantage to his country. He was 
a citizen of Delaware County for many years, 
has represented the county in the Congress of 
the United States several times, held the ap- 
pointment of Associate Judge of the Courts of 
Delaware County, and at the time of his death 
was attached to the Custom-house department. 

In every situation that Mr. Anderson was 
placed by his country, he acted for the benefit 
of the public, which has always entitled him to 
the public's most respectful consideration. If 
ever probity marked the life of any man, and 
endeared him to his fellow-citizens, it did that 
of the deceased. We cannot sufficiently eulo- 
gize him when dead, as he well deserved every 
praise while living." Signed Z. ; no doubt 
John K. Zeilin. 

Mrs. Elizabeth Anderson, the widow 
of the Major, lived in Chester, in the 
old mansion built by her husband, and 
where her daughter, Mrs. Eliza Rich- 
ards, still resides. She died in 1845, 
at the age of 77 years. She was born 
in Virginia; her maiden name being 
Dixon. In youth she was considered 
a great beauty ; and she with her two 
sisters were termed " The three beauties 
of Virginia." She was a remarkably 
active and intelligent woman. Her 
son, Thomas Dixon Anderson, who was 
born in Virginia, before the family re- 
moved to Chester, died in the latter 
place in 1847, ^gs<^ 60 years. 

Major Anderson came from Virginia, 
and settled in Chester immediately af- 
ter the Revolution ; and kept the 
Columbia Hotel, at the N. E. corner 
of Market and Free streets, for many 
years. After his election to Congress, 
he quit the hotel business and removed 
to the house a short distance east of the 



54 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



hotel on Free street, where I have been 
a frequent guest of his widow and chil- 
dren, with my friends, the children of 
the late Charles Field of Philadelphia. 
The following anecdote, in which the 
old Major appears, was often related 
by my father with great glee. It is illus- 
trative of the old soldier's bluntness of 
character: An old time school-master 
of Chester, held on one occasion a 
public examination of his scholars be- 
fore a Committee of gentlemen of the 
place, the Trustees of the school and 
i nvited guests ; the Major was a Trustee^ 
Anxious that his pupils should shine 
before the audience, the Master gave 
out to the scholars in the spelling-class, 
all the long and hard words he could 
think of, winding up with, ' Now spell 
Carth-ag-a-ne, ' /. c. , Carthagena. Per- 
ceiving a smile flit across the faces of 
some of the spectators, a doubt of his 
pronunciation of the word flashed 
across the Master's mind, so turning to 
the Major he said, 'Carth-ag-a-ne!' 
that's right, is it not, Mr. Anderson? 
To the query the Major replied. No, 
I'll be blanked \{\\. is. 

Major William Anderson entered 
the Revolutionary army at the age of 
fifteen years. He was present at the 
siege and surrender of the British army 
at Yorktown, and when mustered out 
of service was only twenty years of age. 
He was a Democrat of the old school, 
and was elected to the U. S. Congress, 
where he served eighteen years. His 
son Thomas Dixon Anderson, Esq., 
was a member of the bar of Delaware 
County, a man of rare ability and of 
great conversational powers, full of wit 
and anecdote. I can never forget the 
pleasant hours I have passed in his so- 
ciety, listening to the interesting stories 
of his travels, and what he saw and 
heard. He was ap])<)intcd Attorney 



General of Tennessee, and afterwards 
U. S. Consul at Tunis and Tripoli. In 
his latter years his eye-sight became 
very imperfect, and he retired from 
public life and passed his remaining 
days quietly at Chester. His sister, 
Mrs. Eliza Richards, lost her sight some 
years ago. She has been a confirmed 
invalid for many years ; in fact since 
the death of her husband, John James 
Richards, Esq., who was a member of 
the bar of Delaware County, and who 
died soon after their marriage, she has 
lived in the quiet retirement of her 
home. Major Anderson had one other 
daughter, the late Mrs. Evelina Porter, 
who was the relict of Captain David 
Porter, and the mother of his dis- 
tinguished sons. 

The old Anderson mansion is still 
one of the most comfortable and im- 
posing private residences in Chester, 
situated in the midst of well laid out 
grounds, with graveled paths bordered 
by box, surrounded by handsome trees 
and a hedge of Althea bushes. . It was 
erected by Major Anderson in 1803, 
and General Lafayette was entertained 
within is hospitable walls when he re- 
visited America in 1824. Mrs. Eliza 
Richards, the daughter of the old 
Major, and Miss Maria Baxter, her con- 
stant friend, and my old Sunday-school 
teacher, show with pride the rare old 
china used on that occasion. In the 
Revolution, Gen. Lafayette rode on 
horseback to Che.ster from the battle- 
field at Brandy wine, where he was 
wounded, but remained there only one 
night, in the old ''Ladomus House," 
at the S. E. cor. of 3rd street and Edg- 
mont, now occupied by Bauer's cloth- 
ing store. 

On Lafayette's second visit to Ches- 
ter he had a grand reception and ova- 
tion. P.eside the troops from the sur- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



255 



rounding country there were several 
military companies from Philadelphia, 
and there was a parade and review of 
the military by the General, after which 
he was entertained by the citizens with 
a banquet in the Court House, at which 
patriotic speeches were made and toasts 
drunk. He passed the night at Major 
Anderson's residence, and breakfasted 
there in company with his son, George 
Washington Lafayette. 

General the Marquis de Lafaye,tte 
thus describes the incidents that pre- 
ceded his first visit to Chester, (see 
Poulsofi' s Advertiser o^Yeh. 25, 1825,) 
after having been wounded in his left 
foot by a musket ball, at the battle of 
Brandywine. Being asked where the 
ball was, he said : 

"The ball went through and through; I 
was on foot when I received my wound ; a part 
of our line had given way, but a part still held 
its ground. To these I repaired to encourage 
my comrades, and to show them I had no 
lietter chance of flight than they, I ordered my 
horse to the rear. The news of my being hurt 
was soon conveyed to the Commander-in-Chief, 
with the usual exaggerations in such cases. The 
good General Washington freely expressed his 
grief that one so young, and a volunteer in the 
holy cause of freedom, should so early have 
fallen; but he was soon relieved by an assur- 
ance that my wound would stop short of life, 
when he sent me his love and gratulation that 
matters were no worse. On the field of battle 
the surgeon prepared his dressings, but the shot 
fell so thick around us, that in a very little time, if 
we hadremained, we should both havebeen past 
all surgery. Being mounted on my horse I left 
the field, and repaired to the bridge near Ches- 
ter, when I halted and placed a guard, to stop 
fugitive soldiers, and direct them to join their 
respective regiments. I could do no^nore; 
becoming faint, I was carried into a house in 
Chester and laid on a table, when my wound 
received its first dressing. 

The General officers soon arrived, when I 
saluted them by begging that they would not 
eat me up, as they appeared to be very hungry, 
as I was the only dish upon the table in the 



house. The good General-in-Chiel was much 
gratified on finding me in such spirits, and 
caused a litter to be made, on which I was con- 
veyed to the Indian Queen in Philadelphia, 
and was there waited upon l)y the members of 
Congress, who were all booted and spurred and 
on the wing for a place of greater safety to 
hold their Sessions. The enemy continuing to 
advance, I was removed to Bristol, and thence 
in the coach of President Laurens (and coaches 
were rare in those days) to Reading, where I 
remained until so much recovered as to be able 
to repair to Head Quarters." 

The General undoubtedly said Beth- 
lehem, not Reading. At Bethlehem 
was at that time located the General 
Hospital of the American army, and it 
is well-known that Lafayette was con- 
veyed to that place, and quartered in 
the house of Mr. Beckel, whose young 
and handsome daughter became the 
nurse of the young, gay and wounded 
French Marquis, and became quite at- 
tached to him, much to the alarm of 
her parents; but the young and gallant 
Frenchman has left only pleasant me- 
mories behind him of his sojourn in 
that good old Moravian town. 

In Spark's Correspondence of Wash- 
ington, 5 vol. 456, appendix i, it is 
stated that Mr. Henry Laurens on his 
way to Yorktown, conveyed Gen. La- 
fayette from Bristol to Bethlehem in 
his carriage, and that Lafayette remain- 
ed at B. about two months. 

In the issue of the Advertiser of Feb. 
II, 1825, it is set forth: 

" A writer in the Allentown Fricdens Rolhe 
— Messenger of Peace — says that after Gen. 
Lafayette was wounded at the battle of Brandy- 
wine he was removed to Bethlehem, where he 
remained until his wound was healed. The 
room in which he lay is still shown, and some 
of those who attended him during his sickness 
are still living and anxious to see him again. 

While he lay ill at Bethlehem, the Sister- 

I hood worked for him a splendid color, and had 

it presented at the time of his departure 'to the 

N'ouH'' l/.ifaveUc,' as he was then called. Thi.-. 



256 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



color, (translated literally) — this token of grate- 
ful remembrance, is now deposited among the 
archives of France, in the city of Paris. The 
writer derived most of this information from a 
lady who assisted at the needle work, and 
whose recollection of the circumstance is per- 
fect, though near half a century has since 
elapsed." 

The Advertiser, of Friday, Oct. 8, 
1824, says: 

"The steamboat which conveyed General 
Lafayette, his suite, the Governor of Pennsyl- 
vania and staff. General Cadwallader and staff, 
the Committee of Councils, the Marshals, and 
a number of friends of the General, arrived at 
Chester, at 1 1 'clock on Tuesday evening. The 
town was brilliantly illuminated, many of the 
windows being decorated with handsome trans- 
parencies and designs. At the landing place 
a line of boys, each holding a lighted candle, 
was formed, which extended to the quarters 
intended for the accommodation of the Gene- 
ral, and along which he passed up to the house. 
A sumptuous entertainment was provided for 
' the Nation's Guest,' at the Court House, which 
was elegantly fitted \\\> ])y the Ladies of Ches- 
ter, to which upwards of 100 gentlemen sat 
down at I o'clock in the morning. Colonel 
Anderson presided at tlie tal)le. Thirteen regu- 
lar toasts were given, and a number of volun- 
teers; the fii-st a very aj)propriate one from 
General Lafayette himself; The utmost harmo- 
ny prevailed. The Citizens of Chester deserve 
great credit for their handsome reception of 
'the Nation's Guest.' The General retired at 
an early hour. Yesterday morning at 7 o'clock, 
after receiving salutes from various artillery 
companies, and reviewing several volunteer 
corps belonging to Delaware and adjoining 
counties, he proceeded in a barouche and four, 
under suitable escort to Wilmington." 

The late William E. Whitman, Esq., 
of the Philadelphia Bar, said that the 
" Washington Grays,'' of which he was 
a member, formed a part of the escort 
of Lafayette, which went down on the 
steamboat with him to Chester. West- 
cott in his history says : "The e.scort to 
Chester was a ' battalion of volunteers' 
to the steamboat wharf, under the com- 



mand of C. G. Childs, Senior Captain, 
and commandant of the ^^ Washington 
Grays. At Chester the patriot passen- 
ger was landed and remained all night in 
that ancient borough." In a note he says 
further ; ' ' The company [Gray ' s] form- 
ed portion of the escort to Chester and 
the Delaware line. In commemoration 
of the part which the Gray's took in the 
reception, it was introduced in the back- 
ground of the full-length likeness of 
Lafayette painted for the corporation 
of the city of Philadelphia, which still 
remains in the Independence Hall 
building." 

The minute books of the First City 
Troop contain the following accounts 
of the service of the company at this 
time : 

" Oct. 4. Assembled at Vaux Ilall at three 
o'clock, P. M., agreeably to orders of Lieu- 
tenant Simmons. Took up the line of march 
for Chester, where we arrived at sundown ; 
took quarters at Mrs. Engles'. At eleven o'clock 
in the evening the signal was given of the ap- 
proach of the steamboat having on board Gene- 
ral Lafayette and suite. Upon the arrival of 
the boat, paraded with Major Wilson's battal- 
ion : received the General, and escorted him 
to his lodgings. Returned to quarters and dis- 
missed. 

"Oct. 5. Formed at nine o'clock, joined 
the procession, and proceeded to the State line, 
where we arrived at half-past eleven o'clock. 
Previous to parting with General Lafayette, an 
address, written by David Paul Brown, was 
handed to him by Lieut. Simmons,* on behalf 
of the Troop. * * * Delivered our dis- 
tinguished guest to the proper authorities of the 
State of Delaware, after which the Troop pro- 

* Lt. Anthony Simmons, was a Colonel of 
Militia, an Associate Judge of the District Court 
of Philadelphia, commissioned May 6, 181 1. 
He had a son Anthony, who left issue one 
daughter, Jeannie, now the wife of Dr. John W. 
Lodge, of Lower Merion, Montgomery Ccjunty , 
I'a. Mrs. Lodge and her youthful daughter, 
are the only living descendants of the old Judge, 
and her only relative on her father's side, is 
Judge Henry H. Anthony, the present U. S. 
Senator from Rhode Island. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



257 



ceeded to a tavern, one mile from the line, 
where a handsome cold collation was prepared 
for them by the committee of Councils. Took 
up the line of march and escorted the Gover- 
nor back to Chester. Dined at Mrs. Engles'. 
Offered the services of the Troop to the Gov- 
ernor as an escort as far as West Chester, which 
he declined, by saying that the gentlemen had 
lieen lately kept much from their homes and 
business, and he could not think of taking them 
out of their road. Saluted the Governor with 
three cheers (dismounted) upon his leaving 
his quarters. At three o'clock took up the line 
of march for the city, where we arrived at seven 
o'clock. 

Charles Justis, says : I see you stated 
that the space between the Sheriff's 
dwelling and the Court house was plant- 
ed with Lombardy poplar trees ; that 
was so. I remember playing amongst 
them when I was a boy. In their midst 
stood an old wooden pump with a long 
iron handle; I stood by that pump 
when Gen. Lafayette visited Chester. 

From a work entitled ' ' Lafayette in 
America in 1824 and 25. — A Journal 
of his journey in these years to the 
United States, by A. Lavasseur, Sec- 
retary to Gen. Lafayette during the 
journey," I make the following extract 
translated from the original, by Wil- 
liam T. Read of Delaware, in 1870, 
being from Chap XL of the original : 

"The 5th of Oct., at eight o'clock, P. M., 
(1824,) Gen. Lafayette received the touching 
adieus of the inhabitants of Philadelphia, and 
we embarked on the Delaware, at an early 
hour, to go down to Chester. We were ac- 
companied by the Governor of Pennsylvania, 
the Committee of arrangements, a battalion of 
volunteers, and a great number of staff officers. 
At eleven o'clock at night we ai-rived at Ches- 
ter, and entered it under the light of its illumi- 
nation. The apartment wherein the General 
was received and harangued, recalled a very 
interesting epoch in his life. It was in this 
same apartment that after his wound at the 
battle of Brandy wine, dressing was first applied 
to it. Before he dismounted from his horse, 
he had the strength and presence of mind to 



I rally a part of the troops who were flying, and 
place them at the head of the bridge over Ches- 
ter creek to meet the enemy, should he have 
thought fit to follow up his success. These 
several circumstances were recalled in a very 
touching manner by the speaker (Dr. Ander- 
son,) charged toreceive the General in the name 
of the citizens of this village. After having 
partaken of an excellent supper prepared by 
the care of the ladies of Chester, we repaired 
to the house of Colonel Anderson, an ancient 
companion in arms of General Lafayette, and 
passed the rest of the night there. 

" On the morrow we passed on our journey, 
and at an early hour arrived at the State of Dela- 
ware. Here we took leave of our Philadel- 
phia companions, after they had put us into the 
hands of the Delaware committee of arrange- 
ment, at the head of \\'hich Gen. Lafayette re- 
cognized with much pleasure, the old Colonel 
McLane, who commanded with great courage, 
under his orders, a partizan company, during 
his campaign in Virginia, and who this day, 
notwithstanding his age of eighty years, pre- 
sented himself on horseback, wearing his cha- 
peau and plume of the revolution. 

" We arrived to dinner at Wilmington. This 
pretty town, regularly built between the Brandy- 
wine and Christiana, is the most considerable 
in Delaware, although its population all count- 
ed does not exceed 6000, it is nevertheless the 
centre of a considerable commerce facilitated 
by its means of navigation. The vicinity of 
Philadelphia and Baltimore give great activity 
to its manufactures. Notwithstanding the 
earnest solicitations of the people of Wilming- 
ton to remain longer there, the General was 
obliged to continue his journey that he might 
on the same day reach Frenchtown, where we 
were to find a steamer to convey us to Balti- 
more. But we were a little delayed by our 
sojourn of four hours at New Castle, ^\■here 
we assisted at the nuptials of a son of Victor 
Du Pont and Miss Vandyke," &c. 

Miss Vandyke was a daughter of 
Nicholas Vandyke, of New Castle, and 
the General (Lafayette) and suite, took 
supper with Mr. George Read before 
leaving New Castle. A copy of the 
journal from which the above is trans- 
lated, is in the New Castle Library. 
William Thompson Read, the trans- 



258 



HISTORY OV OllKSTEK. 



lator, (lied in Fob. 1.S73. at his ivsi- 
denre in New Castle. He was the 
grand-son and author of the " Ivife of 
George Read," a signer of the De- 
( laration of Independence, from Dela- 
ware. 

1 am indebted to the Rev. James 
Shrigley, late Librarian of the Histori- 
cal Society of Pennsylvania, for a copy 
of the above translation. Mr. Shrig- 
ley is a native of Cheshire, in Eng- 
land, the birth place of the ancestors 
of so many Delaware County folks. 

Col. Allen McLane mentioned, was 
the father of the late Louis McLane, 
late U. S. Minister to the Court of St. 
James, under the administration of 
President Jackson. The newspapers of 
Revolutionary times are full of anec- 
dotes of the daring adventures of Col. 
Allen McLane ; so also is a rare old 
book called ^^ American Anecdotes,'" 
printed in Boston, in 1830. The only 
copy I ever saw, I purchased lately at 
a book stand. 

In a poem called " The Battle of 
Brandywine,'^ written by John F. 
Miller, A. M., and recited by the au- 
thor before a large Pic-nic held on the 
battle ground, by the Pulaski Associa- 
tion of Wilmington, Delaware, on the 
8th of June, 1857, will be found the 
following verse : 

" How Washington paused on thai road 

Till every man had passed, 
Still by him wounded Lafayette, 

Whose knee was bleeding fast ; 
How gazing back they bade farewell 

To the still advancing foe, 
To Chester then in triumph sped 

Just four-score years ago." 

It is certainly a new light to look 
upon that disastrous retreat as a tri- 
umph. We have just seen Lafayette 
was not with Gen. Washington, and 
was not woimded in the knee, but in 



the foot, so the i)oem is historically 
incorrect. Two other verses relate to 
Lafayette. The whole poem will be 
fotmd in the Dcla^vare Weekly Re- 
publican of Oct. 16, 1873. 

The following telegraphic dispatch 
explains itself: 

Paris, Dec. 9, 1875. — ^^^ conform- 
ity with the resolution adopted by the 
American Congress, on the 2 2d of 
Jan. last, Mr. Washburne, United 
States minister, to-day handed to M. 
Oscar de Lafayette, Deputy in the 
National Assembly, from Seine-et- 
Marne, and grand-son of the Marquis 
de Lafayette, the watch Washington 
presented to the latter as a souvenir of 
the capitulation of Lord Cornwallis. 
The watch was stolen from the Mar- 
cjuis de Lafayette while he was travel- 
ing in the United States in the yeai 
1825, but was recovered in later years. 
The presentation ceremonies took 
place at the home of the embassy, in 
the presence of the entire Lafayette 
and other families, the attaches of the 
United States Legation, and many 
distinguished Americans. 

Mr. Washburne, in addressing M. 
de Lafayette, spoke in the French lan- 
guage. He narrated the circumstances 
of the theft of the watch, and the 
passage by Congress of the resolution 
for its restoration to the descendants 
of the Marquis de Lafayette, and said : 

"I am fulfilling a pleasant duty. 
The inscription on the watch recalls 
to mind a great deed, which can never 
be effaced from the history of the 
United States; the deed which termi- 
nated the American Revolution and 
assured the independence of the United 
States. 

I am here as the interpreter of the 
sentiments of the government and 
jjeople of the United States towards 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



259 



you and other descendants of the Mar- 
quis de Lafayette. Let us form earn- 
est wishes for the happiness and pros- 
perity of all bearing your venerated 
name ; and with those wishes let us 
associate France, who was allied with 
the United States as her traditional 
friend, and whose glory is so dear to 
us." 

M. de Lafayette, in reply to Mr. 
Washburne, solemnly acknowledged 
his thanks for the relic presented to 
him by the United States Congress. 

He also thanked Mr. Washburne 
for the kind words he had uttered, 
and added, that the Lafayette family 
were filled with profound gratitude for 
the sympathetic remembrances which 
have been preserved for their ally by 
the Americans after so many years. 
He requested Mr. Washburne to ex- 
press to the American people, and to 
their Congress and government, the 
thanks of the Lafayette family, and 
their homage and admiration for their 
second country. 

Attached to Dr. Smith' s Histoiy of 
Delaware County, there will be found 
an interesting series of Biographical 
Sketches of the early settlers and emi- 
nent men of the county. I give here 
a list of those, who were at times, resi- 
dents of ''Old Chester/' as a refer- 
ence, for it is good to recall the old 
folks to memory : 



William Anderson, 
Dr. David Jackson, 
Neels Laerson, 
Ann Friend, 
Francis Baldwin, 
Thomas Baldwin, 
Lawrence Charles Lock, 
Robert Barber, 
Isaac D. Bernard, 
David Lloyd, 
Grace Lloyd, 
Peter Baynton, 
Wm. Markham, 
Thomas Bracey, 
Richard Noble, 
34 



Mrs. Papegoya, 
Dr. John Goodsonn, 
James Sandilands, 
John Baldwin, 
Henry Hale Graham, 
Paul Saunders, 
John Grubb, 
Emanuel Grubb, 
John Test, 
Thomas Usher, 
Heni-y Hastings, 
Robert Wade, 
Lydia Wade, 
Israel Helm, 
Hen. HoUingsworth, 



John Bristow, 
William Oxley, 
John Oxley, 
Richard Buffuigton, 
John Churchman, 
Thomas Powell, 
Thomas Powell, Jr. 
John Powell, 
Joseph Powell, 
Thomas Cobourn, 
Richard Crosby, 
Ralph Fishbourn, 
William Fishbourn, 



Walter Wharton, 
John Hoskins, 
Jane Hoskins, 
Ralph Withers, 
Will Woodmanson 
Roger Jackson, 
John Worrell, 
Joseph Hoskins, 
John Wright, 
Dr. Paul Jackson, 
Jasper Yeates, 
Andrew Job, 
Michael Yzzard. 



XXVIL 

The following interesting account 
of the celebration of a golden wedding, 
is inserted for the purpose of giving the 
form of a certificate of marriage among 
Friends, of showing their mode of per- 
forming that ceremony, and for record- 
ing the custom of celebrating the ter- 
mination of 50 years of married life : 

" The ' Golden Wedditig' of Thomas and 
Hannah Darlington, of Miamishurg, Ohio, 
was celebrated in a becoming manner at their 
residence in that place, on the 28th of the 2d 
mo., 1872, being the first occurrence of the 
kind that ever took place in that town. Friend 
Darlington and his wife removed from Mid- 
dletown, Delaware County, Pa., 35 years ago, 
to Ohio, and purchased a farm near Dayton. 
Five years ago he sold his place and removed 
to his present abode ; his children having all 
married and left home. After prayer, con- 
gratulations by friends, the reading of essays, 
poetry, singing and other exercises ; a hand- 
some gold-headed cane and a number of other 
presents, were given as mementoes of the oc- 
casion, to Mr. and Mrs. Darlington ; after which 
the company sat down to dinner; then follow- 
ed an evening of much social enjoyment, 
during which the marriage certificate of Mr. 
and Mrs. D., given according to the order of 
Friends, was read, in these words : 

' Whereas, Thomas Darlington, of the town- 
ship of Middletown, in Delaware County, 
Pennsylvania, son of Jesse Darlington, of the 
same place, and Amy his wife, and Hannah 
P. Dilworth, daughter of Richard Dilworth 
and Sarah, his wife, (the former deceased,) of 
the township of Edgmont and county afore- 
said, having declared their intentions of mar- 



2G() 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



riajjc with each other hcfore a Monthly Meet- 
iiij,' of llic religious Society of I'lieiuls, held 
at Providence, in the county aforesaid, accord- 
ing to tlie good order used among them, and 
luning the con>ent of iheir pnicnls, their said 
|'n>p,,s;,l of marriage was allowed of by said 
Meeting; now these are to certify whom it 
may concern : that for the full accomplish- 
ment of their intentions, this twenty-eighth 
day of the Second month, in the year of our 
l.oril one thousand eight hundred and twenty- 
two, they, the said Thomas Darlington and 
Hannah P. J)ilwortli, ap])carcd at a public 
meeting of the said people, held at Middle- 
town, aforesaid, and the said Thomas Darling- 
ton taking the said Hannah P. Dilworth by 
the hand, did on this solemn occasion, openly 
declare that he took her, the said Hannah P. 
Dilworth, to be his wife, jiromising, with Di- 
vine assistance, to be unto her a faithful and 
loving husband until death should separate 
them; and then in the same assembly the said 
Hannah P. Dihvorth, did in like manner de- 
clare, that she took the said Thomas Darling- 
ton to l)e her husband, promising, with Divine 
assistance, to be unto him a faithful and lov- 
ing wife until death should sepiarate them (or 
words to the same effect). And mcjreover, 
they, the said Thomas Darlington and Han- 
nah P. Dilworth, (she according to the custom 
of marriage, assuming the name of her hus- 
band,) did as a furtlier confirmation thereof, 
then and there, to these presents set their 
hands. 

Tm)MAs Dari.in(;t()n, 
Hannah Dai^i.incion.' 

'And we whose names are hereunto sub- 
scribed, being present at the solemnization of 
said marriage and subscription, have as wit- 
nesses thereto, set our hands the day and year 
above written : 



Joseph Thatcher, 
Mary Thatcher, 
Sarah Emlin, 
Ann Wilson, 
Jane Yarnall, 
Isaac Yarnall, 
Mary Yarnall, 
Jamc-s Broomalt, 
Hannah Broomall, 
William Russell, 
I'rudcnce Russell, 
Rachel Yarnall, 
Sarah Hibhard, 
Ann Williamson, 
Sarah Russell, 
Mary Ann Hannt.i 



Jesse Darlington, 
Amy Darlington, 
Sarah Meredith, 
Mary T. Dilworth, 
Edward Darlington, 
Samuel J. Darlington, 
Jared Darlington, 
Isaac Hewcs, 
Rhoda Hewes, 
Deborah E. Penncll, 
Joseph Meredith, 
Eliza D. Peirce, 
Amy Darlington, 
Susan Peirce, 
Priscilla Penncll, 
T:.ma/in TVnuell. 



Susan Fairlamb, Priscilla E. Yarnall, 

Samuel Poole, Abraham Pennell, 

Thomas Williamson, James Emlin, 

Joseph Hannum, Jacob Hibbard, 

Fred'k Fairlamb, Jr., Sarah Penncll, 

Hannah IViinell ' " 

A history of the houses of enter- 
tainment in Chester ought to l)e a 
l)rolific subject. I liave made every 
endeavor to obtain all the information 
I could concerning them. 

Before and during the Revolution, 
Mrs. Mary Withey kept the " Colum- 
bia Hotel." It is said to have been, 
in her life-time, the best kept tavern 
in America. She was the widow of an 
English officer, James Withey, and had 
a pension from the British government 
of $60 a year. She became wealthy, 
and died, Jan. 7, 1810, in her 76th 
year. Charles Justis says : "The old 
Withey farm, below Chester, was pur- 
chased by William Graham and my 
father ; they divided it, and father got 
the portion below the road, and built 
a large house on it in 1829, and after- 
wards sold it to Edmund Pennell for 
$10,700, and he sold it to John M. 
Broomall for $45,000. Maj. William 
Anderson then kejjt this tavern for a 
number of years, and was succeeded 
by, I believe, Nimrod Maxwell, who 
kept the hotel until about 1821 ; per- 
haps later. He was the father of four 
daughters, who were quite popular in 
the town. One of them not long ago, 
kei)t a boarding house at the S. W. 
cor. of 1 2th and Walnut Sts., Phila- 
delphia. Two of Mr. Maxwell's daugh- 
ters were educated at Bethleheni Mo- 
ravian Seminary. From the catalogue 
1 extract the following: "1816. Sarah 
Ann Maxwell, daughter of Nimrod, of 
Chester, Pa., ;//. May 19, 1840, Mat- 
thias Maris, of Philadelphia ; — 181 7, 
Maria G. Maxwell," &c. A Chester 
lady says, of the Maxwells, "They 
were a much esteemed familv. con- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



261 



sisting of Mr. Nimrod Maxwell, his 
wife and four daughters and two sons. 
The daughters were school-mates of 
mine at Bethlehem Seminary. The 
eldest son, James, was a very popular 
minister of the Episcopal Church, out 
West, some years ago." After Max- 
well left the Columbia, John J. Thur- 
low kept it until about 1833, when he 
removed to the National, and the ho- 
tel property was purchased by Capt. 
Elijah S. Howes. Capt. Howes mar- 
ried Mary M. Burns, of Chester, 
daughter of James and Ann. They 
had issue, Emma, Francis, Henry and 
Mary. Mary Burns married Henry 
Eyre, son of Jesse M. & Sallie i Church- 
man), both deceased. They had a son, 
George Baker Eyre. Capt. Howes, 
was a sailor, and had been the master 
of a merchant ship, for several years 
before he took charge of the Colum- 
bia Hotel. After keeping the old 
hostlery several years, the captain was 
succeeded, in 1854, by John Harrison 
Hill, who kept there until the year 
1858, when the property was purchas- 
ed by Mrs. Elizabeth Appleby, whose 
husband formerly kept a tavern at 
Marcus Hook cross-roads ; her son, 
Thomas, is now mine host of the Co- 
lumbia. With the exception of a 
small addition built on Market Street 
some years ago, this inn is the same 
size it was an hundred years ago ; and 
in this respect, and in its accommoda- 
tions, is like all the rest of Chester's 
taverns. The proximity of Chester to 
Philadelphia is no doubt, however, the 
cause of her hotels being so small. 
The town lias no summer boarders, 
and its floating population is exceed- 
ingly small. 

The Chester Directory of 1859-60, 
says : 

" The miinljer of taverns in Chester at an 



early date, was much greater than at present. 
About the year 1 790, says a venerable resident, 
almost every house of any size was an inn, and 
among the most prominent of these were the 
following: 

" The Inn of Sarah Cill stood upon the 
property now owned by Rebecca Brobson, on 
the north side of James Street (now Third), 
west of Chester Creek, extending to the creek. 
The proprietress married an Englishman nam- 
ed George Gill, who sided with his country- 
men in the war of the Revolution, and went 
with the English army to Halifax. George 
afterwards returned to Chester, was imprison- 
ed, but liberated by an act of pardon. This 
house has not been a tavern for the last fifty 
years, and is at present the residence of Fred- 
erick J. Ilinkson, who married the daughter 
of William Brobson. At the period at which 
the inn flourished, the people of Chester made 
their own malt, and a malt-house stood xxpon 
the same lot. This was a brick building and 
in a dilapidated condition fifty years ago." 

Valentine Weaver owned and kept 
the inn now known as the City Hotel, 
at the north-east corner of James and 
Edgmont Streets. This property was 
conveyed in 1750, by William Preston 
to Solon Hanley, as the " Blue Anchor 
Tavern." It was kept By Edward 
Engle, until he died about 1810, and 
subsequently by his widow, until 1832 
or 1833. During the time of Mrs. 
Engle's proprietorship, it was the pop- 
ular and fashionable hotel of the place, 
and was called the "National Hotel." 
When Mrs. Engle retired from busi- 
ness she leased the tavern to John J. 
Thurlow, a native of England, and 
this old hostlery became famous among 
the travelling public for its good cheer. 
Mrs. Thurlow, the pleasant, bustling, 
handsome hostess, was a model land- 
lady, and during her time the National 
saw its palmiest days, as it was the stop- 
ping place of the lines of stages that 
passed through Chester for Baltimore, 
Washington, and the South. Here 
the horses were changed and the tra- 



262 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



vellers took a meal. The long row of 
frame stables that were necessary in 
those days, have only lately been torn 
down, and their site near the old 
Chester bridge is now occupied by a 
block of stores, the property of my 
old school-fellow and friend, Lewis 
Ladomus. 

Many of our old-fashioned country 
inns are still used ; but, alas ! their 
glory has departed. How well I re= 
member "Thurlows," in the days of 
its busy greatness ; well I remember 
how, when I was a boy, I lingered 
near its hospitable doors to see the 
handsome horses of the Reeside, Stock- 
ton & Stokes, Murdock & Sharp, and 
Janvier's rival lines of stage coaches 
changed, the smoking steeds detached 
by active hostlers, and the new relay 
of well groomed horses substituted, and 
saw the " Stage-driver," an important 
man in those days, with his great coat 
of many capes and long Avhip ; the 
well-dressed travellers sauntering about 
talking and smoking after their meal, 
waiting for the stage. Oft I have 
peeped into the small, clean bar-room, 
in the centre of which stood a large 
coal stove (in winter) in a large sand- 
box, that served as a huge spittoon. 
In one corner of the room stood a 
semi-circular bar, with its red railings 
reaching to the ceiling, into whose di- 
minutive precincts the jolly landlady 
could scarcely get her buxom person, 
while her husband with his velveteen 
shooting-coat, with its large buttons 
and its many pockets, excited my in- 
tense admiration. At his heels there 
were always two or three handsome set- 
ter dogs, of the finest breed and well 
trained. Sometimes I got a glimpse of 
the south-west room. This was the par- 
lor ; back of it was a room where trav- 
ellers wrote their letters ; and back of 



the bar was a cosy little room, mine 
hostess' sanctum, into which only si)e- 
cial friends were admitted. All these 
are now one large American bar-room. 

In reading accounts of the old Eng- 
lish inns of coaching days, my mind 
involuntarily reverts to "Thurlow's," 
for there on the walls were hanging 
the quaint old coaching and hunting 
prints imported from England, and 
around the house was "Boots," and 
the "Hostler," and the "pretty Wait- 
ing maid with rosy cheeks, "all from Old 
England. But I must away to school, 
or Caleb Peirce will thrash me. The 
horses are all hitched, the passengers 
are "all aboard," the driver has taken 
his seat, (the guard is blowing his horn, 
having taken one inside,) is gathering 
up his many reins; now he feels for 
his whip, flourishes it over his four-in- 
hand, making a graceful curve with its 
lash, but taking care not to touch his 
horses; but does it with a report like 
a rifle shot, the hostlers jump aside, and 
with a bound and a rush, the coach is 
off for Washington, or Philadelphia, 
carrying perchance within it Clay, 
Webster or Calhoun. 

And of a winter's evening when I have 
stolen out from home, I have passed 
the "Tavern," and seen seated around 
its cheerful fire the magnates of the 
town, telling stories of other days (as 
I now could tell their names). And 
sometimes peeping through the green 
blinds, I have seen a quiet game of 
whist going on ; perhaps it was "all- 
fours," or else a game of checkers or 
dominoes, but now such things are out 
of date, or else the times are out of 
joint, and the good old days of Adam 
and of Eve have passed away forever. 

When Mr. Thurlow retired from bus- 
iness in Chester, with a handsome com- 
l>etency, he purchased a fine farm near 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



263 



what is now " Thurlow Station," on 
the Philadelphia, Wilmington and 
Baltimore Railroad, two miles below 
Chester. Mr. Thurlow is still living 
at "Bermuda Farm," just below Ches- 
ter, once owned by my grandmother, 
Mrs. Margaret Smith. I went to 
school, in Chester, with Thomas T. 
and Emeline, the only children of 
Mr. and Mrs.- Thurlow. 

Maurice W. Deshong succeeded Mr. 
Thurlow, and afterwards, Major Sam- 
uel A. Price succeeded him as the 
landlord of the "National," and kept 
the house for a number of years, until 
he retired from business. The Major 
was at one time a prominent politician, 
and was elected Sheriff of the county, 
in 1834; for three years previous to 
which time, he had carried on in Ches- 
ter the business of a hatter. He was 
a son of Samuel Price and Ann Rich- 
ards, his wife, who was the eldest 
daughter of Jacob Richards, the elder, 
who seems to have resided in Aston 
township, in 1772, as will appear from 
a deed of William Grubb and Lydia, 
his wife, of Brandywine Hundred, to 
Jacob Richards, dated April 13, 1772, 
for 225 acres of land on Chichester 
Creek, bounded by lands of Robert 
Shelby, Robert Plumer and Thomas 
Linvill. Grubb purchased the pro- 
perty from Thomas Withers, son of 
William Withers, of Bishop' s-Can- 
nings, county of Wilts, yeoman, whose 
grant from William Penn, for the tract 
of 500 acres, or lease and re-lease, are 
dated the 5th and 6th of Sept., 1681, 
and duly recorded at Philadelphia. 
The originals are in possession of Ed- 
ward Smith Sayres, of Philadelphia, a 
grandson of Jacob Richards. 

Major Price, died at his residence in 
Chester, March 22, 1868, in his 64th 
year. An obituary in the Republican 



announcing his death, said, among 
other things : " The deceased was 
extensively known, had conferred on 
him several military distinctions, and 
had filled the office of High Sher- 
iff of this county. During the last six 
or eight years he had retired from bus- 
iness, and had confined himself very 
much to the society of his family." 
The Major married Sarah Bickham, of 
Philadelphia, and died leaving his 
widow and a large family surviving 
him. His daughter, Sarah, married 
Henry Lindsay, a hatter, of Philadel- 
phia. Annie married J. Gififord John- 
son, of Delaware County, and after- 
wards Hiram Saunders. The names of 
the Major's sons were, Samuel A., Jr., 
Thomas Bickham, Henry Clay, Ed- 
ward A., William G., John C, and 
Joseph Wade Price ; the latter died at 
Media about 1872, in the 35th year of 
his age. He had served in the 5th 
Pa. Cavalry, Co. D, U. S. Vols., dur- 
ing the Rebellion. Edward A. Price, 
Esq., is a member of the Bar, and re- 
sident of Media. 

After Major Price ceased to keep the 
"National," it passed into the hands 
of George Wilson, who kept the hotel 
for quite a number of years, after which 
it passed into the hands of Lewis A. 
Sweetwood. It is now kept by Paul 
Klotz, and has been renovated. 

Mrs. Mary Engle had a life estate 
in the hotel, and after her death the 
property passed into the hands of the 
heirs of her deceased husband, and was 
sold to make a division of his estate. 
Mrs. Engle was the mother of the late 
Rear Admiral Frederick Engle, of the 
U. S. Navy, a gallant and accomplish- 
ed sailor, and an amiable and estima- 
ble gentleman. He died Feb. 12, 
1866, aged 69 years. He entered the 
naval service as a midshipman, Dec. 



1^64 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



6, 1814. The Admiral married Mary, 
the daughter of Joseph Mcllvain, of 
Burlington, New Jersey, late U. S. 
Senator from that State, and a sister 
of the late venerable Protestant Epis- 
copal Bishop of Ohio, who died in 
April, 1873. ^^^'^^ ancestor of Sena- 
tor and of Bishop Mcllvain, came to 
America and settled in Baltimore. He 
was a brother of James Mcllvain, of 
Antrim, Ireland, who came to this 
country and settled in Ridley township, 
Chester Co., Penna., in the year 1740, 
from whom the Mcllvains of Delaware 
County are descended. Admiral En- 
gle died, leaving him surviving a widow 
and the following children : Frederick, 
Edward, George, Charles, Henry, Mary 
and Family. 

The late Capt. Isaac E. Engle, of 
Chester, a well-known merchant cap- 
tain, who died of a nervous fever at 
Macao, from over-exertion while on a 
tempestuous voyage to China, Nov. 3, 
1 844, was also a son of Edward and Mary 
Engle. He married Sarah Ann, young- 
est daughter of Robert P. and Sarah 
Ann Crosby, of Ridley, and left a 
widow and two children, viz., J. Ed- 
gar and Lucie Chauncey. See Record 
of the Crosby family, ]). 212. 

Edward and Mary Engle had also two 
daughters, one of whom, Mary, mar- 
ried Samuel Edwards, Esq., a mem- 
ber of the Delaware County Bar, and 
an estimable citizen, whose memory 
is cherished with affection and respect 
in Chester, the place of his residence 
for the greater part of his life, where 
he built the mansion at the junction of 
Edgmont Avenue and Market Street, 
and entertained his friends with ele- 
gant hospitality. At his decease he 
left his widow surviving, and two 
children — Henry B. Edwards, Esq., 
a member of the Bar, who command- 



ed a company composed of his friends 
and neighbors during the late Rebel- 
lion, called the " Chester Blues ;" and 
Mary Engle, who intermarried with 
Edwai:d F. Beale, late a lieutenant in 
the U. S. Navy, who distinguished 
himself in the war with Mexico, and 
whose exploits as a scout in connec- 
tion with the celebrated " Kit Carson" 
are now a part of the romance of the 
border history of our country. Mr. 
Beale was afterwards General Super- 
intendent of Indian Affairs for Califor- 
nia, and is the owner of the tract of 
land in that State, whose size and ex- 
tent would make some of the small 
German Dukes sigh with envy. It 
consists of 173,065 acres of land, and 
lies in Kern County. Mr. and Mrs. 
Beale, have lately removed to Wash- 
ington, D. C, where Mr. Beale pur- 
chased, last year, the old Decatur 
mansion, and has refitted it in hand- 
some style, making it one of the most 
comfortable and commodious residen- 
ces in that city ; so says the Washing- 
ton correspondent of the Philadelphia 
Press, who adds further : 

"General Beale is a native of this District. 
Mis father, a purser in the Navy, married a 
(laughter of the gallant Commodore Truxton, 
and resided on that fine estate just beyond the 
limits of the city, on the road to Glenwood, 
now the residence of his widow. General 
Beale, who is now fifty years of age, served 
for several years in the U. S. Navy where he 
rose to the rank of lieutenant. During the 
administration of General Pierce, he resigned 
his commission, and received the appointment 
of Superintendent of the Avagon road to Cali- 
fornia, in the construction of which he dis- 
jilayed great energy and perseverance. After 
the completion of this road, (Jeneral Beale l)e- 
came the purchaser of a large ranche near Los 
Angelos, where he devoted himself to wool- 
growing and raising of blooded horses. On 
this ranche he now has 180,000 sheep. His 
clip of wool yields $40,000 a year. Last win- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



265 



ler he spenl in this city with his daughters, 
who were great favorites in society." 

From The Delaware County Repub- 
lican, of April 17, 1867, I copy the 
following interesting sketch of Gen. 
Edward F. Beale: 

" General Beale was among the first of the 
pioneers from the States to California. In 
1846, while on board the frigate Congress, as 
sailing master under Commodore Stockton, he 
was selected as bearer of despatches to the 
Navy Department. On leaving the ship in the 
Atlantic Ocean, he joined a Dutch galliot, and 
went to London, and from thence to Washing- 
ton. Immediately after his arrival, the Secre- 
tary sent him with despatches to Commodore 
Stockton, whom he found at Callao, in South 
America, having travelled over the Isthmus, 
long before it was known as a route to Cali- 
fornia, and, indeed, before we had any definite 
knowledge of the latter country. When he 
reached California, hostilities had commenced 
between Mexico and this country, and he at 
once took charge of a company of volunteers, 
and served until the conquest of California 
was completed. At the close of the war he 
received a handsome letter from his command- 
ing officer. Commodore Stockton, of which 
the following extract will show the estimation 
in which he was held by that gallant officer : 

' I have selected you to be the bearer of the 
accompanying despatches to the Navy Depart- 
ment, in consequence of your heroic conduct 
in volunteering to leave General Kearny's 
camp, (then surrounded by the enemy) to go 
to the garrison of San Diego, for assistance, 
and because of the perils and hardships you 
underwent during that dangerous journey to 
procure aid for your suffering fellow-soldiers.' 

At the same time, his brother officers who 
had served with him during the Mexican war, 
presented to him a sword of honor and epaulets, 
w'ith their hearty wishes for his promotion. 
The sword, which is a beautiful piece of Ame- 
rican workmanship, bears the following inscrip- 
tion : ' Presented by the officers of the United 
States Navy, on the station at San Diego, 
California, to Lieut. Edward F. Beale, of the 
United States Navy, for his gallant conduct 
in the charge upon the Mexican forces at San 
Pasquale and San Bernardino, and his con- 
veying intelligence from San Diego, of the 



position of Gen. Kearny, through the enemy's 
lines, at great personal hazard, on the 6th and 
7th days of Dec, 1846.' 

From that time to i860, Lieut. Beale was 
constantly connected with important public 
services, as Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 
and in command of parties of exploration in 
relation to the lines of railroad and the great 
public highways from the Western frontier to 
the Pacific Ocean, of which his many reports 
to the War and Interior Departments may be 
found in the Congressional documents. On 
the election of Mr. Lincoln, he was appointed 
Surveyor General of California, and on the 
breaking out of the rebellion, he requested by 
letter — which was published in this paper at 
the time — to the President, to be relieved from 
the position, in order that he might serve his 
country more actively in the field. This favor 
was denied him, and he continued in office for 
some time, and since leaving it, has been en- 
tirely engaged in agricultural pursuits. He is 
the owner of an immense body of real estate, 
comprising 200,000 acres of land, from which 
he has sold within the last two years 15,000 
head of cattle and the same number of sheep. 
He has- at this time between 40 and 50,000 
head of sheep on one of his large estates, from 
which his clip this year will amount to over 
125,000 pounds of wool. The land, also 
abounds in rich mines of gold, silver and cop- 
per. Few farmers in this part of the Union, 
can realize this large tract of land held by one 
man, and the immense quantity of stock sold 
yearly therefrom. And yet, we are told, that 
these vast possessions are managed with com- 
paratively little trouble to the owner, whose 
work goes on with harmony and system dur- 
ing his absence from its personal supervision." 

General Beale is now (1876, ) United 
States Minister to Austria. 

Saniuel Edwards was one of the most 
prominent and influential men in the 
county in his day, and he was univer- 
sally esteemed. In politics he was a 
Democrat, and represented the county 
in the Lower House in the Congress 
of the United States ; and during An- 
drew Jackson's and Martin Van Bu- 
ren's administrations, George G. and 
Samuel M. Lei per, Samuel Edwards, 



200 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



Levi Reynolds and James P)iu hanan, 
were the powers behind the throne. 

The other daughter of Edward and 
Mary Engle, Abby, married John Ker- 
lin, Esq., a member of the Delaware 
County. Bar, and who, previous to his 
death, resided in the house lately occu- 
pied by Joshua P. Eyre, dec'd. Mr. 
Kerlin was, for many years, President 
of the Bank of Delaware Co. , and at 
his death, left a family consisting of 
his widow and two sons; Charles, after- 
wards a merchant captain, and Fred- 
erick E. Kerlin, now deceased. 

In the American Annual Registe?-, 
for 1796, published Jan. 19, 1797, is 
the following on the travelling of the 
times : 

•'The roads from Philadelphia to 
Baltimore exhibit, for the greater part 
of the way, an aspect of savage deso- 
lation. Chasms to the depth of six, 
eight, or ten feet, occur' at numerous 
intervals. 

A stage-coach which left Philadel- 
phia on the 5th of Feb., 1796, took 
five days to go to Baltimore. The 
weather for the first four days was 
good. The roads are in a fearful 
condition. Coaches are overturned, 
passengers killed, and horses destroy- 
ed by the overwork put upon them. 
In winter, sometimes, no stage sets 
out for two weeks." 

The great road from Philadelphia 
to New-Castle, was surveyed and laid 
out through Chester County by the 
Commissioners appointed for that pur- 
pose, viz. : Caleb Cowpland, Joseph 
Bonsall, Samuel Levis, John Davis, 
Peter Dicks, James Mather, Thomas 
Pearson and John Sketchley, and their 
return made to Council, July 16, 1748. 
On March n, 1748-9, John Salkeld 
complained to Council, that if the road 
was laid out as surveyed, sixty feet ivide, 



in front of some of his lands, which he 
held on both sides of the road near 
Chester bridge, it would interfere with 
another road laid out by the County 
Court and damage him; but it ap- 
peared he had no just cause of com- 
plaint. 

\\\ I Pa. Archives, 767, there is a 
petition to Council, to lay out the road 
from Cobs Creek bridge to Chester 
bridge, the old record being lost, Aug. 
13, 1747; also, for building bridges 
and repairing the highway, signed by 

Jacob Hibbard, Geo. Ashbridge, 

Samuel Bunting, John Davis, 

John Griffith, Thos. Gumming, 

Job Harvey, John Baldwin, 

Geo. Wood, John Taylor, 

Thos. Pearson, David Cowpland, 

Isa. Pearson, Jacob Howell, Sr., 

John Paschall, John Mather, 

John Pearson, James Mather, 

Joshua Ash, Joshua Thomson. 



XXVIII. 
"The Blue Ball Inn," one of the 
old taverns of Chester, was the ancient- 
looking brick building still standing 
upon the N. E. cor. of Market and 
Second Streets. It was erected by 
David Cowpland, who at one time re- 
sided in it. The sign, a blue ball, Avas 
attached to the end of a pole or staff 
that projected through a hole made in 
the wall of the house, on the gable end 
on Market Street. Samuel Fairlamb 
was the landlord of this inn. No tav- 
ern has been kept there for the last 60 
or 70 years. For a number of years 
it was the residence of Sarah Malin, 
the widow of Francis Malin, who died 
there recently ; so the Directory of 
1859-60 says. In 1777, a British man- 
of-war was practising with her guns, 
one day, when, by some mistake, a 
ball was fired that went right through 
one of the upper rooms of this hou.se. 
It will be observed that in the walls of 



HISTORY UF CHESTER. 



267 



the house, which is a substantial brick 
building, there are holes still appear- 
ing in which the timbers were inserted, 
that upheld the scaffolding put up when 
the house was being erected. I have 
been told that in former tiraes^ before 
the days of Mechanics' Liens, when 
the masons were not paid for their 
work, these holes were always left in 
the walls, and no mason would close 
them up until the builder was paid. 

"The Washington House," on Mar- 
ket Street, near Fifth Street, east 
side, opposite the old Court House, is 
said to have been erected by Aubrey 
Bevan,* (fother of Davis Bevan, who 
died in 1761,) and kept as an inn by 
him about 1755, and afterwards by Wil- 
liam Kerlin, and was a noted hostlery. 
Chester seems to have been noted for 
its hotels. After the death of Mr. 
Kerlin, the house was kept by his son- 
in-law, Joseph Piper, until his decease ; 
after which his widow, Mrs. Sarah Pi- 
per, kept the tavern for many years. 
Joseph Piper died Nov. 9, 1827, in the 
50th year of his age. Major Piper is- 
said to have prepared the supper given 
in the old Court House to Gen. La- 
fayette, on his visit to Chester, Oct. 5, 
1824; but I believe that to be an error; 
as Major Anderson, who entertained 
the General, owned a hotel, and na- 
turally gave the preference to John J. 
Thurlow, who rented it of him. After 
Mrs. Piper's death, Evans S. Way kept 
it until he was elected Sheriff; then 
Samuel A. Price; after him Edward 
E. Flavill, who used a painting of 

* Aubrey Bevan kept, previous to 1 739, a 
house called the " Pennsylvania Anns.'" This 
property was owned by Ruth, the widow of 
John Hoskins, Jr. She died in 1739, and de- 
vised the house and lot to her grand-daughter, 
Ruth Mather. See ante, p. 56. It is more 
than probable that this tavern is the one referr- 
ed to, and that it was not built by Aubrey 
Bevan. 

35 



Penn's Treaty with the Indians, as a 
sign, the work of a Quaker artist, Edw. 
Hicks, and the hotel was conducted 
as a temperance house. The sign was 
presented by Samuel West, a brother of 
Benjamin West, the celebrated painter, 
Flavill sold the property to Thomas 
Clyde, who continued it as a temperance 
house for some years, when it was pur- 
chased by John G. Dyer, ^(who married 
Arabella, a daughter of Thomas Clyde,) 
by whom it was kept for a number of 
years, until he was succeeded by his 
son, Samuel A. Dyer. It is now own- 
ed and managed by Henry Abbott, Jr. 
Mr. Clyde formerly kept a grocery 
store, about 1826, at the N. E. cor. of 
the old Market place, on Market' St., 
north of Third St. J. Edward Clyde, 
Esq., one of the present Justices of the 
Peace of Chester, is a son of Thos. 
Clyde. Col. Samuel A. Dyer,;;/. Caro- 
line B. Vaughan, daughter of Jacob K. 
and Matilda M. ; she died at Chester, 
Dec. 7, 1874. 

Thomas Clyde married Henrietta 
Mifflin Ashmead, a daughter of Mr. 
John Ashmead, who was a manufac- 
turer of wall paper in Philadelphia. 
Their only children were J. Edward, 
and Arabella, wife of John G. Dyer, 
who died April 15, 1871, in her 53d 
year. J. Edward Clyde married Catha- 
rine Collins, in Feb., 1857, she died 
Aug., 1857, and in 1858, he married 
Emma Ott. They have six children. 

Thos. Clyde, d. June 22, 1855. 
aged 76 yrs. ; Mrs. Clyde, d. Sept, 29, 
1874, aged 82 years. Preston Eyre 
married a sister of Mrs. Clyde, Ara- 
bella Ashmead. I can recall several 
of her children; J. Ashmead Eyre, 
who kept a dry goods store at the N. 
W. corner of Market Square, in Ches- 
ter ; Henrietta, Arabella and Edward 
Eyre, who now resides in San Fran- 



268 



ISTORY OF CHESTER. 



cisco,and is in opulent circumstances. 
Arabella married Edward Darlington, 
Esq., of Chester, now of Media ; and 
Henrietta married Caleb IJooth, of 
Delaware Count)-, now a prominent 
judge and lawyer in one of our Wes- 
tern States. Mr. Darlington's son, 
George, is a well-known member of 
the Delaware County Bar. His sister, 
Arabella, married Joseph R. Morris, 
Esq., also a member of the Bar, but 
who died some )'ears since. William, 
another son, resides in the West. 

The Republican of Oct. 2, 1874, 
contains the following obituary : 

" Died — In this city, on the 28th ult., Hen- 
rietta M. Clyde, relict of the late Thomas 
Clyde, in the 82d year of her age. 

Another link that bound the old time with 
the present has been broken in the death of 
Mrs. Cl.vnK. The deceased was the daugh- 
ter of John Ashmead, a manufacturer in Phil- 
adelphia, and grand-daughter of Capt. John 
Ashmead, a noted seaman. vShe was born in 
Philadelphia, Aug. 20, 1793. Within the com- 
pass of her life, almost the entire history of this 
government, as it has existed under the Fed- 
eral Constitution, has been made. In 1813, 
she was married to Thomas Clyde, and a not 
unimportant event in her life was, that Thomas 
Clyde, the now largest steamship owner in the 
United States, in 1820, an orphan of eight 
years, came to this country in his uncle's care, 
and his youthful training was entirely in her 
hands. Forty-eight years ago, in 1826, Mrs. 
Clyde and her husband came to reside in this 
city, and here her life has been remarkable for 
an unostentatious charity, a l)usy life of good 
works ; and many are those among us now, 
who will miss the hand of help the aged dead 
extended to the needy. Eighteen years ago 
Mr. Clyde died, and now his helpmate follows 
him into that mysterious state that no man 
knoweth what it is. Dead — the sum of life 
ended — the great good deeds done in the body 
are inscribed upon that roll that fades not 
henceforth forever. The last of the seventeen 
who organized the first Presbyterian Church 
of this city, still bravely battling, she fell 
'At the side of her Captain, Christ, 
Under whose banner she had fi)Ughl so long.' " 



Thomas Clyde, a nephew of Thomas 
Clyde, and a former resident of Ches- 
ter, is now a prominent and wealthy 
shipping merchant of Philadelphia, and 
is conceded to be, by all those well 
versed in maritime affairs, the largest 
ship-owner of the present day in our 
country. He is the owner or part 
owner of over fifty steamers, and has 
extensive branches of his Shipping 
House in New York and Baltimore. 
His two sons, William P. and George 
W. Clyde, are connected with him in 
business. He was born in Ireland, in 
181 2, and came to this country when 
only eight years of age, and lived in 
Philadelphia with his uncle, who was 
a grocer. In 1826, he and his uncle 
removed to Chester, and he continued 
in his employ until 1832, when he took 
charge of a stone quarry on Ridley 
Creek, as overseer. That quarry, like 
others at that day on the Delaware, 
furnished immense blocks of stone 
weighing from two to seven tons, to 
the U. S. Government for the for- 
mation of the Delaware Breakwater, 
near Cape Henlopen. These stones 
were carried to the Capes in large 
sloops. Shortly after this, Mr. Clyde 
purchased the "Slaymaker Farm," at 
Naaman's Creek, which he still holds. 
He married Rebecca, a daughter of 
William Pancoast, of Springfield, Del- 
aware County, Pa. Soon after his 
marriage, he bought the "Jacques 
Quarry," located between the Prac- 
tical Farmer and Shellpot Hill, on 
the Delaware River, 4 miles east of 
Wilmington, Del., at a place called 
Quarryville, and furnished stone to 
the United States, for the Delaware 
Breakwater and other Government 
works — a profitable business if care- 
fully managed, as Mr. Clyde proved. 
Sometime afterwards he contracted to 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



2f)9 



build a number of locks for a Canal 
Company in Virginia, on such favor- 
able terms, that he sold his contract to 
other parties at a profit. He then 
turned his attention to building steam 
vessels. During the late Rebellion he 
fitted out numerous steamers and char- 
tered them to the Government, fulfil- 
ling all his engagements honorably and 
honestly, with profit to himself and to 
the satisfaction of the Government of 
his adopted country. He is now in- 
terested in a majority of all the steam 
vessels that ply between the ports of 
Philadelphia and New York, Norfolk, 
Richmond, Alexandria and Washing- 
ton, and to other ports along the At- 
lantic Coast line, and is constantly 
engaged in building more steamers. 

Mr. Joseph Piper, mentioned above, 
who married Sarah, daughter of John 
Odenheimer, died, leaving two sons 
and two daughters. One son yet living. 
Dr. George W. Piper, was once a 
well-known druggist in Chester. His 
brother, Ferdinand Piper, was ap- 
pointed a midshipman in the U. S. 
Navy, Nov. i, 1827. Passed mid- 
shipman, June 10, 1833 ; and pro- 
moted to Lieutenant, Dec. 9, 1839. 
Drowned at sea, Oct. 28, 1844. He 
was a gallant young officer, and sacri- 
ficed his life in the noble discharge of 
duty to save the lives of the men under 
his command. A boat in his charge 
was upset at sea, the whole party cling- 
ing to the capsized boat caused it repeat- 
edly to sink beneath them. Lieutenant 
Piper ordered the men to hold on to 
the boat until rescued. He then said, 
" Good bye, lads," loosened his grip, 
and sunk beneath the waves, giving his 
young life to save those of the common 
sailors. I have no fitting words to 
characterize, as it deserves, this act of 
sublime courage, this proud instinct 



of an officer's duty to those under his 
command. It has been justly said, 
an officer should act in battle and in 
peace as the father of his men. This 
principle seems to have actuated our 
young hero. The following appeared 
in one of the Chester newspapers : 

" Died.— On the 28th. of Oct., 1844, in the 
Bay of Pensacola, in the 32d year of his age, Lt. 
Ferdinand Piper, of the U. S. Navy, youngest 
son of Joseph and Sarah Piper, deceased, 
late of the Borough of Chester. 

Death has thus, within a few short months, 
deprived the Borough of Chester of two es- 
teemed and highly respected citizens and 
officers of the Navy, creating deep grief in 
the hearts of their relatives and friends that 
time alone can assuage. Mr. Piper was de- 
servedly beloved by his relatives, friends and 
brother officers, for the urbanity of his man- 
ners and the goodness of his heart." 

Caroline, a daughter of Joseph and 
Sarah Piper, married May 2, 1831, 
John K. Zeilin, Esq., a member of the 
Delaware Co. Bar, formerly a promi- 
nent man in the county. He was elected 
Captain of the Pennsylvania Artiller- 
ists, May 15, 1833; Colonel of the 
47th regiment of Militia, ist Brigade, 
3d Division — consisting of the Militia 
of Chester and Delaware Counties — 
for 14 years, from Aug. 3, 1835 ; and 
was Deputy Prosecuting Attorney at 
one time. They had issue, Henrietta, 
J. Henry, Mary C, Virginia, and Win- 
field Scott. The other daughter, 
Louisa Piper, married John Cloak, of 
Smyrna, Delaware ; he died leaving 
two daughters, Caroline, who married 
Horace Peterson, of Philadelphia, and 
after his death, Gideon Speakman, of 
Chester, Sept. 9, 1876; and Emma 
Cloak, who married Dr. George D. 
Mahon. Some years after the death 
of her husband, Mrs. Cloak married 
Edward Boker, of Philadelphia. The 
Zeilins are of German descent. Briga- 
dier General Jacob Zeilin, comman- 



270 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



(lain of the I'nited States Marine 
Corps, is a brother of John K. Zeilin, 
Esq., now deceased. 

J. Henry Zeilin, ///. Eiiielinc C, 
dan. of Judge Carleton J^ and Susan 
U. Cole, of Macon, Georgia, where he 
resided from 1853 to 1870, and carried 
on business as a druggist. They have 
issue, Mary Bell, Carleton B., Susan E. 
and Maria O. Zeilin. In 1870, Mr. J. 
Henry Zeilin removed to Philadel- 
phia. Mary C. Zeilin, dau. of John 
K. and Caroline, m. Albin M. Wilson, 
of Philadelphia. 

The late John K. Zeilin, Esq., at 
an early age went to Chester to live, 
and became a clerk in the Prothono- 
tary's office, then held by Henry Myers. 
He studied law during his clerkship 
with Edward Darlington ; was ad- 
mitted in 1827, and continued in prac- 
tice until he removed to his native 
city, in 1852, and died there Aug. 6, 
1876, in his 73d year. He was Pro- 
thonotary of the Courts of Delaware 
County during part of the administra- 
tion of Gov. Wolf. 

On the 1 8th of Sept., 1846, a conven- 
tion of the Whig citizens of Delaware 
Co., assembled at the Black Horse in 
Middletown , to nominate a ticket. At 
this convention, John K. Zeilin was 
nominated for Congress by a large 
majority of the delegates present, and 
Dr. Joseph Wilson, John G. Hender- 
son and John M. Bromall were ap- 
pointed conferees to meet similar con- 
ferees from Montgomery County— the 
District being composed of Delaware 
and Montgomery. A clear under- 
standing existed that the candidate 
should come from Delaware County. 
The conferees met on two occasions, 
and failing to agree, adjourned sme 
die. Meanwhile, Samuel M. Leii)er, 
of Delaware Co., was nominated bv the 



Democrats, and the imjjression got 
abroad that,vshould Mr. Zeilin con- 
tinue in the political field, he would 
be defeated by Mr. Leiper. A county 
meeting was called, to which the con- 
ferees made their report. At this 
meeting H. Jones Brooke presided, 
and Joshua P. Eyre and James J. Lewis, 
of Newtown, acted as Secretaries. 
After the report of the conferees, Hon. 
Edward Darlington moved that a com- 
mittee from the meeting be appointed 
to confer with the Montgomery County 
conferees, who were then present. The 
chairman appointed Y. S. Walter, Jas. 
Huston and William Bishop the com- 
mittee, with instructions to report what 
measures were necessary to be adopted 
to secure the harmonious action of the 
party in the District. While the com- 
mittee was absent, Mr. Zeilin addressed 
the assemblage, and at the close of 
his speech withdrew from the canvass. 
Mr. Walter, chairman of the com- 
mittee, then reported to the meeting 
the following resolution, which was 
adopted without a dissenting voice : 

^^ Resolved, That John K. Zeilin, 
Esq., who was placed in nomination 
for Congress by the Whigs of Dela- 
ware County, at a county meeting held 
on the 1 8th of Sept. last, having mag- 
nanimously withdrawn his name as a 
candidate for Congress for this Dis- 
trict; and as John Freedley, Esq., of 
Montgomery, is the nominee of the 
party in that county, we imanimously 
recommend him to the support of the 
Whigs of the Fifth District, and earn- 
estly request our political brethren of 
this county to give him their cordial 
and \nidivided sui)i)ortat theai)proach- 
ing election." 

The withdrawal of Mr. Zeilin re- 
stored harmony to the party, and Mr. 
Freedley received the whole Whig vote 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



271 



of the county — 1,457; his majority 
for Congress over Mr. Leiper, in the 
District, was 377. 

This act of Col. Zeilin's gave to the 
Whig party the majority of one in the 
House of Representatives. At the me- 
morable election of the Hon. John 
Banks for the Speakership, he had a ma- 
jority oione vote, and that was obtained 
by the election of John Freedley, Whig. 
Had Col. Zeilin remained a candi- 
date, Mr. Leiper, Democrat, would 
have been elected, and the House of 
Representatives organized as a Demo- 
cratic body. 

The Directory of 1859, states that 
" The brick house on Edgmont street 
north of James, upon the tan-yard lot, 
was likewise a Tavern, and kept by a 
person named Johnson. The same 
house is now occupied by Mr. J. S. Bell. 

'' In the building at the S. W. corner 
of Market and Work street, now occu- 
pied as a Stationery Store by Mr. Zook, 
a tavern was kept by James Pennell. 
James' house became noted by his keep- 
ing a tiger for exhibition, which attract- 
ed numerous visitors ; Pennell subse- 
quently removed to the Black Horse 
in Middletown, Avhere he continued his 
exhibition. As he was one day ex- 
perimenting with the animal, he fell 
a victim to its ferocity, having been 
caught by it and so severely lacerated 
as to cause his death. The property 
referred to is now owned by Frederick 
J. Hinkson. 

' ' The second house from the cor- 
ner of Work street, on the east side 
of Market street, was a Hotel kept by 
John Scantling, an Irishman ; and the 
resort of all the sons of the Emerald 
Isle. For a number of years, and up 
to about 1855, it was kept as a tavern 
by John Irwin." 

There is some confusion and mis- 



take about the two last descriptions. 
The tavern kept by the Irwin's was on 
the west side of Market Street and 
included the corner building and the 
one next door, (now occupied by 
Joseph Ladomus' jewelry store,) and 
had extensive stabling in the rear,, 
with a large yard and sheds for horses. 
I lived next door where the Stacey 
family now reside ; and played at cir- 
cus in Irwin's stables when a boy. 
Maurice W. Deshong rented the hotel, 
and conducted it for some years, and 
until about 1852. David Cowpland, 
who was the son of William, a cooper, 
in Chester, built the old White Swan 
tavern, late Irwin's, and the house 
next door, where the Stacey's live, 
about the year 1750. He owned 
the farm on the banks of the Dela- 
ware, lately owned and occupied by 
Mr. Laws — the old Bond farm. I 
knew William D. Laws, a son of 
James Laws. He was in the service 
during the rebellion as a Major of 
volunteers. The bricks with which 
the old tavern and the dwelling are 
constructed were made upon Mr. Cowp- 
land's farm. Some of them, it is said, 
were imported from England ; but 
that is hardly probable, although bricks 
were brought from England at an ear- 
lier day. 

David Cowpland ;;/. 10 mo. 31, 
1730, Isabella Bell, and on the same 
day, his sister Mary, m. William Pan- 
coast ; all of them of Chester. His 
daughter Agnes 711. 6 mo. 12, 1760, 
Davis Bevan ; Joshua, his son, in. 
in 1765, Ann Evans, of Middletown ; 
David, another son, m. Hannah James, 
of Chester, (daii. of Samuel, deceas- 
ed, and Johanna,) 6 mo. 11, 1772. 
Sarah a dau. of Joshua and Ann, m. 
6th of 3d mo., 1813, Thomas Malin, 
of Middletown. 



'in 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



Margaret Cowpland, daughter of 
William, cooper, of Chester, ?n. Nov. 
9, 1727, Edward Bezer, of Bethel. 

In 1779, David Cowpland was still 
living and kept the old tavern men- 
tioned ; and as I find he had a license 
in 1755, I suppose he kept the same 
inn until his death, which occurred in 
1779 or '80. 

Whether there ever was a tavern 
opposite to the White Swan, on Mar- 
ket street, as^ alleged, I cannot say, 
but I doubt it, as I believe the house 
next door to Dr. Terrill'sold residence 
is a small frame. If there was a tavern 
kept there by Scantling, it could only 
have been a small drinking shop. 

Caleb Cowpland, who was appointed 
in 1750, an Associate Justice of the 
Supreme Provincial Court, was a son 
of William, and a brother of David ; 
he died 10 mo. 12, 1757; aged 67 
years. 

David Paul Brown in " The Foriwi,'" 
ist vol. 252, says: "Of Caleb Cowp- 
land, we cannot find a single trace, 
except his name." Mr. Brown's ge- 
nealogical researches were not exten- 
sive, as will be perceived by any one 
who reads his work. 

At Chester Monthly Meeting held at 
Providence, 8 mo. 25, 1714, "Caleb 
Cowjjland Produced a Certificate of 
his Removall from Sedberg Monthly 
Meeting, in Yorkshire, Old England," 
which was recorded as follows: 

••r<( our well beloved ffriends in the Pro- 
vince of Pensilvania, in America. Dear 
Friends, with Dear and Brotherly Love in our 
Lord Jesus we salute you, &c., and do hereliy 
acciuaint you that the Bearer hereof, our ftViend 
Caleb Cowpland, signified to us att This, our 
Monthly Meeting, That he Intended to Re- 
move (as way might be made) from hence 
into your country in order to settle there, And 
Desired our Certificate along with him to you 
r'oncerning his Conversation and Circuni- ! 



stances, &c. : Now These are therefore to 
Certify you, that He is the son of Honest Pa- 
rents who have carefully Educated him in the 
\^•ay of the Truth ; and he has thus far well 
approved himself, for we believe he hath not 
only Received Truth by Tradition, hut in llie 
Love of it ; Insomuch that he is a young man 
of a sober and good Conversation and hath 
always been so from his childhood. We have 
further to acquaint you that he Removes with 
the Consent of his Parents, and that he is free 
from any Ingagement on any account, either 
in Relation to marriage or otherwise ; so that 
he Comes to you a clear and ffree young man. 
We truly Wish his Welfaire, And that as he 
hath begun well the Lord may Preserve him 
so that he may continue therein the Remain- 
ing Part of his time ; and then we doubt not 
but he will meet with Incouragment from 
such amongst you as are Honest harted to 
God ; and that it may be soe is what we De- 
sire : Farewell. 

From our Monthly Meeting held at Brigg- 
flats, near .Sedbergh, in Yorkshire, in Great 
Britain, This 23d Day of the 12th month, 
'7 '3- Signed by order, and in Behalfe of 
the said meeting By 

William & Agnes Cowpland, I'arents. 



Edmond Winn, 
William Adamwait, 
John Hugginson, 
John Gosling, 
Robert Willan, 
Isaac Hadwen, 
John Betham, 
John Greenwood, 
William Baynes, 



Samuel Parrott, 
Christo. Winn, 
Tho. Blaykling, 
Joseph Bayns, Jr. 
Antho. Pinder, 
Ralph Anderson, 
John Atkinson, 
John Close, 
John Burton." 



In 1750, his brother Joshua brought 
a certificate from the same meeting, 
dated 26th of 2d month, and in 1723 
the parents and their other children 
also came over. 

Caleb Cowpland took an active part 
in meeting affairs, and being a good 
writer he was appointed to write all 
certificates of marriage for the particu- 
lar meeting of Providence, to which 
he for some years belonged. He was 
appointed clerk of the Monthly Meet- 
ing in 1722, and at the next meeting 
after his death the following Minute 
was made : 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



273 



" Oiu- Worthy and Esteemed P^riend, Caleb 
Co^vpland, since our last meeting being De- 
ceased, who for upwards of Thirty-four years 
past has been clerk to this meeting to General 
Satisfaction ; But now it is Necessary that 
another Clerk be appointed : But as this meet- 
ing has not yet concluded who it shall be, 
Peter Dicks, for the present, is Desired to 
serve as Clerk." 

Judge Cowplancl married, the 14th 
of ist mo., 1 716-7, Mary Tidmarsh, 
of Chester; she d. 8th mo. 5th, 1719, 
leaving a son William, h-. the 26th of 
loth mo., 1 71 7, who d. in the 7th 
mo., 1728. On the loth of the nth 
mo., 1 721-2, Caleb Cowpland mar- 
ried secondly, Sarah Edge, of Provi- 
dence, widow of Jacob Edge and dau. 
of Rees and Hannah Jones, from 
Wales, and they had the following 
children: David, b. 1722, 10, 31; 
Jonathan, b. 1724-5, nth mo. ; Agnes, 
b. 1727, 6, 4; Caleb, b. 1730, 3, 15; 
Grace, b. 1732, 12, 18; d. 1756, 
10, 17. Sarah, wife of Caleb, the 
Judge, d. 1758, 3, 28; aged 68 years. 
Agnes Cowpland, dau. of Caleb and 
Sarah, m. 1753, 8, 27, John Lownes, 
son of Joseph and Sarah, of Philadel- 
phia. On the tombstone erected to 
the memory of the old Judge is en- 
graven these words, "Caleb Cowp- 
land, departed this life the 12th day 
of the loth month, 1757, in the 67th 
year of his age. ' ' 

In the records of Chester Monthly 
Meeting, I .find the following birth of 
Bevan's. Elizabeth, born 1706, ist 
mo. Ann, 1708, 7th mo. Mordecai, 
1 710, ist mo. Benjamin, 1711, 9th 
mo., no days given. And among the 
deaths, William died 1715, 10, 17 ; 
Isabella, 1822, 4, 6. 

Sarah,* a dau. of Davis and Agnes 
Bevan, married Benj. Bartholomew ; 

* Sarah Bartholomew was disowned in 1783, 
for marriage by a priest to one not a member. 



who died 1784, without issue. He 
was an uncle to -Captain John Davis, 
already mentioned, (p. 146, ) and 
raised and equipped, at his own ex- 
pense, a company of men for his coun- 
try's jiervice. He was a member of 
the Assembly, from Chester County, 
in 1774. Mrs. Bartholomew survived 
her husband many years, and inherited 
from her father, the property at the 
S. W. corner of 4th and Market streets, 
in Chester ; consisting of the tavern 
and present Stacey residence, in which 
she lived until near the time of her 
death. 

On April i, 1819, John Irwin, a 
native of Ireland, took possession of 
the old Hostlery at the N. W. corner 
of Market and Work streets, then called 
the ^^ Hope' s Anchor.'" He changed 
the name to the " White Swan;'' I 
remember the sign, with a White Swan 
painted on it swimming in blue water, 
on a rectangular board swinging in a 
frame, supported on a heavy pole, at 
the corner mentioned. Mr. Irwin was 
noted for his hospitality ; a keen sports- 
man, he owned several fast race horses, 
and kept a pack of hounds. His house 
was the resort of most of the people 
from his native country who visited 
Chester, as well as those from the sur- 
rounding country who were fond of 
field sports, besides the travellers. He 
died Sept. 8, 1834, and the business 
was continued by his wife until her 
death, the result of an accident, the 
fracture of her hip, ^ Aug. 17, 1847. 
William, their son, then kept the 
hotel until 1849, when Maurice W. 
Deshong became the landlord. Wil- 
liam Irwin was a man of talent ; he 
invented and patented a process for 
raising sunken vessels. He died Oct. 
5, 1854, during a visit to Cleveland, 
Ohio, of cholera. His remains were 



274 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



brought to Chester, and interred in the 
grave yard of St. Paul's, adjoining the 
Church, in his sister Jane's lot, along- 
side of his mother, father, and sister 
Ellen. 

I'he parents of John Irwin, were 
William Irvine, and Jane Nelson, of 
Scotch-Irish descent, living on a farm 
near Enniskillen Castle, County Fer- 
managh, Ireland. They had sons, Rob- 
ert, John and James, farmers; Christo- 
pher, an Episcopal minister; and Henry 
Irvine, a physician of several diplomas. 
He married Letitia Armstrong, in Ire- 
land. He came to America and set- 
tled in Georgia as a planter, and also 
practised his profession. James and 
Christopher visited the United States, 
but returned to Ireland ; they had 
sisters, Ellen and Bessie. 

John Irwin, of Chester, married in 
Ireland, May 28, 1814, Jean Mayne, 
daughter of Samuel and Mary (Mac- 
kensie ;) their son William, born Mar. 
7, 1 81 5, was but a few months old 
when his father became embarrassed, 
having, before marriage, become surety 
for a friend, and had to sell his farm 
to pay the large sum required ; his 
father-in-law having refused to assist 
him. Being deprived of most of his 
means he determined to emigrate to 
America, leaving his wife with her 
parents until he had made a home for 
her in the new country, but she re- 
fused to be separated from him ; her 
father finding her firm then offered to 
assist Mr. Irwin, but he declined, and 
he and his wife sailed for America, 
arriving in Providence, R. I., in 1816. 
They went from there to New York, 
and finally came to Chester, to look 
up an uncle of Mr. Irwin's, (John Nel- 
son,) who had also been unfortunate 
in going security for a friend in Ireland, 
whom they found living at " Green 



Bank," and who w'cnt with his family 
to Canada, a short time afterwards. 

On his arrival at Chester, Mr. Irwin 
found his means diminishing, and by 
the advice of Dr. Job H. Terrill, took 
the " Hope's Anchor;" the old sign 
of which the Irwin's left in the garret 
of the hotel when they finally left it. 
Mr. Irwin never let his wife's family 
know that he kept a tavern in America, 
because the people of the " Old Coun- 
try" differ from ours, and pride them- 
selves upon their mode of living, or 
making a living. Mrs. Irwin said 
there were none but professional men 
in her family in Ireland. 

John and Jane Irwin had the follow- 
ing children. Williain, already men- 
tioned, who dec'd unmarried ; John 
Asbey, who ;//. Delia Campbell, of Phil- 
adelphia; she ^. Dec. 1871, childless; 
Samuel H., m. Kate House, of Phila- 
delphia, (has issue, James and Lizzie, 
m. to Geo. Wright, June 18, 1873;) 
Mary, m. Daniel J. Chapman, of Phila- 
delphia, (and has one child, Dolly ;) 
/a?ie Nelson, residing in Chester, un- 
married; Ellen, who died in 1844, un- 
married ; Annie in. Peter Ritter, of Ho- 
boken, N. J., (and has Henry, m. to 
Lottie Kuster, Nov. 28, 1872 ; John I., 
Peter, William I., and Annie Ritter;) 
and Lizzie Irwin, who died unmarried, 
Jan. 21, 1876. 

Mrs. Irwin's })roud speech, and the 
services those of her family and Mr. 
Irwin's rendered this country during 
the Revolution, will render the follow- 
ing brief sketch concerning them, of 
interest. The Mayne's were originally 
English, Capt. William Mayne, of the 
British army, saved, it is said, many 
lives at the time of the Irish re- 
bellion. His power to do so, is thus 
related by tradition. He was offered 
knighthood for his services in India, 



H 1 S T 11 Y O F C li E S T E R . 



but asked instead, the privilege of 
saving life from the gallows, and was 
granted the right of saving nine lives 
each year; be this true or not, the 
descendants of one whose life was cer- 
tainl)^ saved through his intercession, 
are well known here. The Mayne's 
were at one time a very wealthy family. 
Samuel Mayne, heir of Golden, pos- 
sessed 40 estates ; he was a cousin of 
Mrs. Irwin's father. The latter owned 
three estates, and left one to each of 
his three sons, viz. : John Sedsbor- 
rough (named after an ancestor, Lord 
Sedsborrough, the ruins of whose cas- 
tle are still to be seen on his place,) 
Samuel and William Mayne. Their 
mother's name was Mary, a daughter 
of Dr. Samuel Mackensie; she had 
besides the three sons mentioned, ten 
daughters, and another son. Dr. 
Samuel Mackensie married in 1768, 
Jane Warner, daughter of Richard and 
Mary. He came to America and was 
a surgeon at Fort Pitt, under the Eng- 
lish government. On March 30, 1776, 
the Committee of Safety appointed 
Dr. Mackensie Surgeon to the 2d Bat- 
talion of Pennsylvania Troops in the 
service of the United Colonies. He 
offered his services, expended his 
means in procuring medical supplies 
and never received any pay, pension, 
or repayment. At the battle of "Three 
Rivers," June 8, 1776, Dr. Mackensie, 
Gen. Wm. Thompson, (his mother's 
brother,) and Col. William Irvine, were 
taken prisoners, but afterwards ex- 
changed. It is said he bought the 
ground the town of Greensburg stands 
on, with a gold repeater watch, and 
purchased several houses in Baltimore, 
one of which he had furnished before 
he left the country in 1781, and re- 
turned to Ireland for his family, in- 
tending to bring them to this country, 
80 



when he died, June 1781, from in- 
juries received by being thrown from 
his carriage, leaving a widow, and one 
child, Mary, who married Samuel, son 
of Arthur Mayne^ of Golden. Col. 
William Irvine, of Enniskillen, captur- 
ed at "Three Rivers," was an uncle of 
Willliam Irvine, father of John Irwin, 
of Chester. He served to the end of 
thewar, ^. Aug. 12, 1804. None of Dr. 
Samuel Mackensie' s heirs ever came 
over to see after the property he left 
here. Mrs. Irwin's father wrote to her, 
that she and her brother, John Mayne, 
might have all they could get of the 
Doctor's property, and a Power would 
be sent to her if necessary ; but nothing 
was ever done in the matter. Dr. 
Mackensie was accompanied to America 
by his brother Col. Robert Mackensie, 
and they both served under their uncle 
William Thompson, a Brigadier Gene- 
ral in the Continental Army, appointed 
by Congress, from Pennsylvania, who 
also served until the close of the war, 
and died Nov. 22, 1796. 

Robert Frazer, Esq., a son of Col. 
Persifer Frazer, of the Revolutionary 
Army, and who was an intimate friend 
of Dr. Samuel Mackensie, dined one 
day at the "White Swan," and enter- 
ing into conversation with Mrs. Irwin, 
was much surprised to find that she 
was a grand-daughter of his father's 
friend. He became much interested 
in her family history, and promised to 
look after the property Dr. Mackensie 
had left in America, but died before 
he could do so, so it has passed into 
the hands of strangers. Robert Fra- 
zer, Esq., was the father of the late 
John Frazer, Professor in the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, and a brother 
of Eliza, wife of the late Judge Henry 
Myers, of Delaware County. Her 
daughter Mary Ann Myers died at 



276 



HISTORY OF CHESTEU. 



her l)rother's, \\m. Henry Myers, who 
was agent for the Pepper estate, and 
lived near the Navy Yard in Philadel- 
phia ; his brother Persifer Myers died 
while storekeeper at the Navy Yard. 
Judge Myers lived next door to the 
White Swan tavern for many years, and 
was U. S. Post-master at Chester. 

The John Mayne mentioned as the 
brother of Mrs. Jane Irwin, eldest son 
of Samuel Mayne and Mary Mackensie, 
while on a visit to his sister at Chester, 
married Sallie Ann Harlan, a widow 
of John, a brother of Dr. Ellis C. Har- 
lan ; her maiden name was Sallie Ann 
West, she was a niece of Samuel and 
Benjamin West ; the latter being the 
great painter. She died in Ireland, 
and left one child, Mary Ann, who 
came to this country and married a 
Mr. Hewett. John Mayne married 
secondly, Matilda Hare. He and his 
brothers Samuel and William, married 
sisters, daughters of Capt. Hare, of the 
British Army. They all visited this 
country and returned again to Ireland. 
Samuel, a son of John, came to this 
country in 1874, and purchased a farm 
in Schuyler Colfax County, Illinois. 

A singular incident is related con- 
cerning the wife of Judge Joseph 
Mayne, of Dublin, an uncle of Mrs. 
Irwin. Mrs. Mayne, being supposed 
to be dead, was placed in a vault, and 
her engagement ring containing a 
valuable diamond was buried with her ; 
one of her servants knowing this, deter- 
mined to get the ring ; in trying to get 
it off he cut her finger, when she re- 
vived, and he fled the country, al- 
though the Judge advertised for him, 
and would have given him a handsome 
reward for saving his wife's life. Capt. 
John Irvin, U. S. Navy, (1875) is said 
to be a member of this family. 

There is a fine large building on the 



"Upi)er Pier," known as "TheSteam- 
boat Hotel," formerly rented by Cross- 
man Lyons. Who kept it before he 
did, I cannot remember, nor do*" I 
know when it was first used as a house 
of entertainment, but before Lyons 
kept the hotel, it was occupied as a 
tavern, by John Ford, father of Nelson 
Ford, then by Henry Rease, and after- 
wards by a Mr. Niles. It stands back 
from the line of Market street on the 
east side, and the new street called 
Front street, passes close along its 
southern side. It had been used as a 
tavern several years before 1832, as 
will appear by the following adver- 
tisement which I copy from the Weekly 
Visitor, verbatim. 

'' For Rent. — The Steamboat Hotel, 
Chester, Pennsylvania. This well- 
known establishment, situate on the 
upper pier, which has been occupied 
for several years as a public house. 
It is most advantageously located, 
being but a few yards distant from the 
landing of the numerous steamboats, 
which ply uj) and down the river. 
There are seventeen fine rooms in the 
building, which are large and airy and 
very comfortable. The bar room is 
fitted up in the neatest manner. A 
two-story piazza, extending nearly 
around the house, is sufficient to ac- 
commodate nearly 100 persons to dine, 
and affords a delightful promenade, and 
an extensive view on the Delaware, the 
Lazaretto, &c. There is stabling on 
the premises sufficient for 20 horses, 
with a fine shed attached. A spring 
of excellent water on the premises and 
a good garden, containing three acres 
of excellent land. Terms easy, and 
made known on application to James 
M. Broome, 6th street below Chestnut, 
Philadelphia, or to Samuel Smith, 
Chester, Delaware Countv. Posses- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



277 



sion can be given on the 25th of March 
next. Jan. 29, 1832." 

It is said that the old Steamboat 
Hotel is one of the most ancient build- 
ings in Chester, and that during the 
Revolutionary war, when the British 
fleet sailed up the river to Philadel- 
phia, the frigate "Augusta," which 
went up and never came down again, 
opened fire on the town of Chester as 
she passed, and that a shot from one 
of her guns struck the gable end of 
the hotel next to the river, at the spot 
now marked by the circular window. 
Tradition says that the whole British 
fleet opened fire on every house along 
the river banks within range. I have 
heard it said that one shot struck the 
"Crosby House," at Ridley Creek 
Quarries, now occupied by John C. 
Leiper ; and that at Chester many 
houses were struck, among others, the 
residence of Henry Hale Graham and 
the old pent-house* or tavern at the 
N. E. corner of 2d and Market streets. 
Mr. Graham and his family sought 
shelter in the cellar, as no doubt every- 
body else did, during this display of 
the bravery and humanity of the naval 
heroes of Great Britain, in making an 
uncalled for attack upon a defenceless 
people. 

The Directory mentions also, a beer 
house called the Globe, which "was 
once kept upon James street, below 
Market street, by a man named Scott, 
but abandoned as a public house for 
nearly fifty years. It was burned down 
in 1830, and the site is now occupied 
by the Upland Buildings^ owned by 
Samuel A. Price." As the beer-house 

* A pcnl-liouse is so called, because there 
is a ilenii-roof or a projection over the win- 
dows of the different stories to shed the rain, 
such as is found built in the old Court-House, 
and in almost all the ancient buildings in 
Chester. 



was burned down during Scott's occu- 
pancy, there was good reason for its 
being abandoned as a public house. 
Scott sold eatables and table-beer, thus 
keeping the first restaurant in Chester. 
Table-beer does not seem to be made 
in this country now. Our people have 
been educated to drink strong liquors, 
more the pity. Table-beer was some- 
thing like the present Weiss-beer, but 
more pleasant to the taste, and a half 
mug of it with the other half porter, 
was called ' ' Half-and-half. ' ' The old 
structure referred to, stood on the 
north side of Third street, east of Edg- 
mont street, and next to the stone 
stables of " Thurlow's tavern," which 
were between the Globe and the tav- 
ern. It was a fine old brick house 
with a curb roof. I think it was burned 
down about 1835 or '36, not in 1832; 
however, I remember the fire very 
well, young as I was then. A line of 
men were stationed along the street 
down to Chester Creek, who passed up 
buckets of water to fill the old hand 
fire engine, whose house was opposite 
the residence of Mrs. Gray. The 
empty buckets were passed back to the 
creek by another line composed of 
women and small boys. The place 
was entirely destroyed, as well as the 
stabling of the National Hotel I have 
before referred to. The next morning 
we boys had great fun hunting up our 
"Fire Buckets. ' ' Those belonging to 
my father, I lately deposited with the 
Delaware Mutual Safety Insurance 
Company. They were made by John 
Birchel, of Chester, in 1798. 

Some of the older inhabitants of 
Chester may be able to recall the -lines 
that a])peared a day or so after the burn- 
ing of Scott's liouse, beginning: 

Fire ! fire ! cried John Dyer, 
Where ? where ? said Preston Eyre, 



278 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



Down the street, said Joiiatliaii Treat, 
It's liere! It's here! yelled Cliarley Lear, 
\'our wrong, your wrong, cried John Deshong. 

A short distance below Chester Creek 
bridge, on the river side of the old 
post road leading to Baltimore, now 
Third Street, on a high embankment, 
there stood about 1840, an ancient, 
long, low building, built partly of logs, 
partly of boards, a frame, and partly 
a frame filled with bricks and plates of 
iron, which it is said were brought over 
from England, that is, the bricks and 
iron plates. The house was only one 
and a half stories high, and consisted 
of three parts, or rather of three con- 
tiguous houses. The frame house stood 
with the gable to the road ; next came 
the frame filled in with brick, &c., and 
next a one-story long, old log house 
used as a kitchen. 

This old house was one of the first 
taverns in Chester, and was called 
" The Black Bear Inn.'' It was at 
this tavern that William Penn was en- 
tertained when he visited Chester, and 
from this circumstance it was called 
" the old Penn mansion," by persons 
that had heard that Penn once lived 
in it, they thinking it had been his re- 
sidence, and not knowing that it had 
been once quite a famous inn. This 
property formerly belonged to Capt. 
Isaac E. Engle, who married my cou- 
sin Sarah Ann Crosby. He sold it 
about 1841-42, and it was torn down 
soon after to make room for more 
modern improvements, in course of 
which the high groiuid on which the 
house stood was levelled or dug away. 
The pretty, pleasant, little town of 
"Old Chester," of my school-boy 
days, is now scarcely to be recognized 
in the new city that has sprung up; so 
many new buildings have been erect- 
ed, some on the gardens of the old 



residences, and so many old landmarks 
obliterated in the march of improve- 
ment, that Chester is a new town now, 
and mostly inhabited by a new peo- 
ple, and I feel like a stranger in a 
strange land whenever I re-visit its once 
familiar environs. 

The old Black Bear Inn, stood al- 
most directly opposite the residence 
of the late William Brobson, and nearly 
opposite that of the late Samuel Shaw, 
the father of my old friends James E. 
and John Eyre Shaw, Esq. 

There stood around this quaint old 
house, in my boyhood days, many 
fine large shade trees. It was a beau- 
tiful spot, and captivated my youthful 
fancy. At that time it was the resi- 
dence of the children of William Baggs, 
viz. : James, Catharine, Mary and Jane 
Baggs. James B., was in business in 
Philadelphia, and was always the best 
dressed man I ever remember to have 
seen ; quite a dandy. He had two sons, 
Theodore, who is living, and James, 
who died some years ago, in a decline. 
Mary and Jane Baggs, when I left 
Chester, in 1838, to go to West Point, 
were very handsome young women. 
Mary, afterwards became the wife of 
my good friend John Larkin, Jr. ; 
Jane married Jeremiah Stevenson, 
the well-known auctioneer of Chester. 
The eldest daughter of William Baggs, 
Catharine Harmony, met, while on a 
visit to her brother in Philadelphia, 
our good old friend. Squire Sam- 
uel Ulrich, and became his wife in the 
year 1828. Mr. Ulrich removed to 
Chester, about 1834, or '35, and kept 
a tobacco and segar store in Market 
Street, on the west side, north of 
Third Street, in the former residence 
of Preston Eyre, and his place of 
business was the resort of all the gen- 
tlemen of Chester ; some passed most 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



279 



of their time there ; among whom I 
remember Mr. William Gerhard, a re- 
tired merchant of Philadelphia, who 
boarded with Squire Smith's widow, 
in the old mansion erected by William 
Graham, on Edgmont Avenue, with 
his wife and his daughter, who was a 
very beautiful young lady ; she after- 
wards married Henry J. Du Pont, of 
Wilmington, Delaware. Her brother, 
Benjamin Gerhard, Esq., was a prom- 
inent member of the Philadelphia Bar, 
and married a daughter (Maria), of 
the late celebrated lawyer, the Hon. 
John Sergeant. 

I find in my note-book the following- 
entry : — Dec. 6, 1871. There died at 
Chester, an old and well-known resi- 
dent of the town, Samuel Ulrich, in 
his 69th year. He was a noted Justice 
of the Peace, and an old-time honest 
country Squire. All the inhabitants 
of Chester knew and loved the short, 
thick-set, cheerful "Squire Ulrich." 
As a magistrate, it was his delight to 
settle disputes between his neighbors, 
not to encourage them in litigation. 
He was a tobacconist by trade, and his 
store was a favorite place of resort, 
and around his cheerful fire during the 
long winter evenings, oft gathered a 
social circle of old friends, and many 
jokes were told and many a good thing 
said ; may his memory ever remain 
green. He was the father of my friend 
Dr. William B. Ulrich. His parents, 
John and Mary Ulrich, were residents 
of Philadelphia. He was the father 
of the following children : William 
B. , John, Mary, who died in infancy, 
Clara, Rachel, Mary Cline, unmar- 
ried, Job Terrill, Kate B., and Anna 
Ulrich, who was married, Oct. 21, 1874, 
to George F. Erdman , of Chester. 

Dr. William B. Ulrich, the eldest 
son, married Eliza, daughter of David 



F. Miller, of Louisiana, where he prac- 
tised medicine for 20 years. They 
have issue, Samuel, a Civil Engineer 
on the Pennsylvania Railroad, William 
and David Ulrich ; Dr. Ulrich now 
resides in Chester. 

John is married, has three children ; 
resides in Camden, N. J., and is a clerk 
in the office of the Penna. R. R. Co. 

Clara Ulrich, is the wife of William 
Ward, Esq., the well-known and pro- 
minent lawyer of Chester, one of the 
men to whom the city owes so much 
of its prosperity. He was elected in 
the fall of 1876 to represent the coun- 
ties of Chester and Delaware in the 
lower house of Congress of the United 
States. They have six children, S. 
Ulrich, John Broomall, William, Rena, 
Clara, and Madgie Ward. 

Rachel B. Ulrich, is the wife of 
David D. Miller, of Louisiana, now of 
Natchez, Miss. They have only one 
child living, Rachel Miller. 

Job Terrill Ulrich, was lost at sea, 
in 1871 ; he was on the steamer "At- 
lanta." The history of that vessel is 
this. " The Rebel Ram Atlanta," built 
by the Confederate Government, was 
captured by the Federal forces, repair- 
ed and sold to the Republic of San 
Domingo, and under the name of "II 
Triumphe," she sailed from Chester, 
and was never heard of again, suppos- 
ed to have foundered at sea, and all 
hands lost. 

Kate B. Ulrich, is thejvife of Or- 
lando Harvey, Esq., a member of the 
Bar, and a son of Dr. Elwood Harvey, 
of Chester, who is a prominent man, 
and an esteemed physician. They 
have one child, Albert. 

Dr. Smith, in a manuscript, giving 
some particulars of the Hoskins' fam- 
ily, of Chester, states, that "At a Court 
held the 6th of 8th month, 1691, the 



280 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



following appears among the minutes: 
'We, the Grand Jury present, Richard 
Parker, Caleb Pusey, Robert Moulder, 
George Foreman, James Sandilands, 
John Hoskins and Roger Jackson, for 
selling beer, &c., without license, con- 
trary to law.' The persons presented 
by the Grand Jury were among the 
most respectable in the county. Caleb 
Pusey was a noted preacher among 
Friends, and had been foreman of the 
previous Grand Jury. The present- 
ment probably had its origin in malice 
or revenge." 

In the latter assertion I think he is 
mistaken, because the large number 
of emigrants^ arriving at that time at 
Chester, caused nearly every house, if 
not all of them, in the town, to be 
turned into houses of entertainment, 
and with such a number of English 
yeomen and their families, all accus- 
tomed to the free use of beer and ale, 
it is quite natural that their host should 
get into trouble for selling or allowing 
it to be drunk on their premises. 

In the olden times our tavern-keep- 
ers were among our best known and 
most popular citizens, especially those 
keeping inns on the well travelled stage 
routes, or who kept taverns in the coun- 
try towns ; and such is the case, in some 
degree, in the country yet ; and there 
is no more popular or successful candi- 
date for sheriff, or other county office, 
than the landlord of a country tavern, 
where the j^^eople re.sort in winter to 
balls, and where sleighing parties stop 
to refresh and dance, and near which 
in summer, fairs, shows and circusses 
exhibit their attractions. I know now 
at least a " baker's dozen" of the keep- 
ers of favorite country inns, who are, 
or who have been Sheriffs in different 
counties of this State ; and as many, 
who have been Colonels of militia re- 



I giments. In the late civil war, numer- 
I ouscommanders of volunteer regiments 
were tavern keepers, when they first 
went into service. 

About fifty years ago, Chester was a 
favorite Sunday drive for Philadelphi- 
ans. My father told me he had seen 
both sides of the great road now called 
Fifth Street, from Major Anderson's 
hotel to where the railroad crosses the 
'Big road," lined with the different 
kinds of vehicles of Sunday visitors, 
the horses hitched to the fences, there 
being no room for them in the stables 
of the town. These Sunday excursion- 
ists drove down to Chester, where they 
took dinner, and frequently something 
stronger, and drove back to the city in 
the afternoon. 

Tavern keeping is almost a certain 
road to office, or to a comfortable com- 
petency, in this country, so that few 
hesitate to engage in the business. 
The daughters of "mine host," are 
proverbially handsome. "Why is this 
thus?" as the celebrated humorist, Ar- 
temus Ward, would say. I believe that 
it is not generally known, that this nom- 
de-plinne of a successful writer of the 
present day, now deceased, is the ver- 
itable name of a Gentleman who re- 
ceived from Congress the first com- 
mission of a Major-General in the Con- 
tinental army, dated June 17, 1775, 
and ranked next to the Commander-in- 
Chief, our beloved Washington. 

In the Sunday Dispatch, Feb'y 15, 
1874, an inquirer says he has a letter 
in his possession, dated Dec, 1777, 
from D. Montgomery, which appears 
to have been written from Chester, in 
which he speaks of the consequences 
of war, and seems to have been a pris- 
oner, and he wishes to know the name 
of the prison which is referred to at 
Chester, and who the writer was. The 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



281 



battle of Brandywine was fought, Sept. 
II, 1777, after which the British fleet 
passed up the river on Nov. 19. Clies- 
terwas in possession of the British, who 
kept their prisoners on board H. B. M. 
frigate, "Vulture," lying off Chester, 
so says tradition, but "tradition is a 
careless story teller." 

XXIX. 

The ancestors of the family of Broom 
in this country, appear to have settled 
first in Chester County. In 17 16, Mor- 
ton Mortonson made conveyance of 
lands in Darby to John Broom, and in 
the records of Chester Monthly Meet- 
ing of Friends, it is recorded that 
Daniel Broom, son of Daniel, of Mar- 
pie, married, 1725, 10 mo. 8th, Judith 
Calvert, of Providence, daughter of 
John, and in the register of births 
will be found the following entries: 
James, 9 mo. 8, 1726; Mary, 9 mo. 
25, 1728; Daniel, 12 mo. 25, 1730; 
Thomas, 3 mo. 20, 1734; Betty, 3 mo. 
20, 1734; children of Daniel and Ju- 
dith Broom. 

James Broom brought a certificate 
from Friends at Frenchay in Glouces- 
tershire, to Concord Monthly Meeting, 
held 10 mo. 2, 1717. In 1719 he re- 
turned to England to attend to some 
business, and in his absence his wife, 
Mary, died early in 1720, leaving two 
small children, Edith and Alexander. 
James Broom died in 1721, leaving 
some estate in Marshfield, Gloucester- 
shire, to his son Alexander, whom he 
desired might be sent to his relations 
there, when four years old. 

One Thomas Broom married Eliza- 
beth, daughter of John Hannum of 
Concord, prior to 1730, and a James 
Broom of Wilmington, married about 
1740, Esther, daughter of John and 



Mary Willis of Thornbury. They had 
a son John Broom, and perhaps other 
children. 

I have no data by which to trace the 
descent to the present generation of 
the family, but such information as I 
have collected may be of use hereafter; 
for the alleged descent of " the very 
ancient and eminent family of Broom," 
as Burke styles them, is the very ro- 
mance of history. 

Having been frequently asked how 
the Brooms and Crosbys are connect- 
ed, it will be as well here to dispose 
of that question. 

John Crosby of the 4th generation 
from Richard, the original settler in 
Middletown, married early in 1770, 
(secondly) Ann, a daughter of Robert 
and Elizabeth. Peirce, of Christiana 
Hundred, in the State of Delaware. 
There is an advertisement in confirm- 
ation of this residence in the Pennsyt- 
vania Gazette oi Dec. i, 1773, offer- 
ing a reward of ten dollars for a mare 
stolen from Robert Peirce, living in 
Christiana Hundred, near Wilming- 
ton, dated July i, 1773. 

About this time Jacob Broom, " an 
eminent and talented citizen," {Mont- 
gomery,') who afterwards represented 
the State of Delaware in framing the 
Constitution of the United States, 
married Rachel, another daughter of 
Robert and Elizabeth Peirce, a sister 
of Ann, who married Judge John Cros- 
by of Ridley. 

James and Mary Broom, were the 
original emigrants to this country. 
They came from England, and their 
daughter, Edith, married Benjamin 
Sharpless, 2 mo. 27, 1737, a son of 
Joseph and Lydia (Lewis). She had 
three children, Joseph, Benjamin and 
Edith, and died Aug. 13, 1744? in the 
26th year of her age ; so says Spencer 



'2S'2 



J STORY OF CHESTER. 



BonsalL in his Extracts from Friends' 
Records in Pennsylvania, MS. 

Miss Bessie Montgomery, in her 
' ' Reminiscences of Wilmington, " 1 85 1 , 
pp.42, 43, 58, 75, says: "Jacob Broom, 
Esq., was an eminent and talented 
citizen of the State of Delaware. He 
selected, in 1795, the only eligible 
spot for a cotton factory, the first in 
this region, on the banks of the Bran- 
dywine, near Du Font's celebrated 
powder mills. It was deemed a won- 
derful enterprise. Soon after he built 
a mansion, spacious for that day, on 
the hill near Wilmington, now occu- 
pied by Dr. Smith, called Tuscalum. 
In the summer of 1797, Mr. B.'s fam- 
ily spent some weeks there, and I re- 
member the spot when I was on a visit 
to his daughters. He was engaged in 
commerce for many years in Wilming- 
ton, and represented the State in fram- 
ing the Constitution of the United 
States. ' ' She says also : ' ' The address 
to General Washington, Dec. 16, 1783, 
is unrivalled as a composition. It was 
probably written by Jacob Broom." 

Jacob and Rachel Broom had issue : 
Elizabeth Peirce, who m. John Ro- 
berts ; Esther, who became the wife 
of William Lyons, Esq., of Bedford, 
Pa. ; Lavinia ; Ann, who m. Asa 
Moore; Jacob P., who m. Eliza Rob- 
erts, sister of John, who ;//. Eliza- 
beth, and of James Roberts, who be- 
came the second husband of Sally 
Broom, as will be seen presently; 
James M., attorney-at-law, of Wil- 
mington, Del., and of Philadelphia, 
and Sally. 

Sally Broom, m., first, Jacob Brin- 
ton, by whom she had a daughter, 
Elizabeth, who died in Coatesville, Pa. , 
Aug. 27, 1867, without issue. She 
/«., secondly, James Roberts, and had 
issue, Mary, the second wife of John 



Fairlamb Hill, of Ridley, they had no 
issue ; Rachel, who m. Samuel Henry, 
of Philadelphia ; of their other chil- 
dren, Lavinia, Margaret, Virgilinadind 
James, I have no account. Their 
youngest daughter, Sarah Maria Ro- 
berts, was my childhood's playmate, 
and a frequent visitor to my grand- 
mother Hill's, while I lived with her 
in Ridley. She married Charles Hen- 
ry Stone, son of John, a member of 
the large silk-house of John Stone & 
Sons, of Philadelphia. He died some 
years ago, leaving surviving him, his 
widow and the following children: 
John, Brinton, Charles A., Newton 
Henry, Edward Roberts, Mary Helen 
and Bessie Stone. 

John Stone, m. Annie, daughter of 
Hugh E. and Hannah Steele, of Laurel 
Iron Furnace, in Chester County, Pa., 
now of the Iron firm of Steele, Worth 
& Co., of Coatesville. 

Dr. Brinton Stone, who commenced 
the study of medicine under Dr. John 
Brinton and Dr. De Costa, and after tak- 
ing one course at Jefferson College, 
upon a call of the Government for sur- 
geons, presented himself to the Medical 
Board of the army, passed a very cred- 
itable examination, and on the same 
night proceeded to join the army under 
Gen. McClellan, before Richmond, 
and was assigned to duty with the ist 
U. S. Cavalry. After the retreat of 
McClellan to Harrison's Landing, he 
went with the wounded to the Military 
Hospital at Chester, and after some- 
time, was ordered to the Surgeon-Gen- 
eral's Office, Washington, D. C, as 
assistant to Dr. John Brinton, and af- 
terwards to Dr. George Otis, in the 
Medical Museum, who were engaged on 
a medical work for the Government on 
Gun-shot and projectile wounds. Sin- 
gularly, I do not find Dr. Stone's name 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



283 



on the Army Register until May i8, 
1864, when his name appears as As- 
sistant Surgeon of Vohmteers, with the 
rank of Brevet Major. Yet the above 
are the facts concerning his services dur- 
ing the Rebellion. In 1865, he married 
Elizabeth D., dau. of Richard C. and 
Martha Magdalen Bowie, of Baltimore, 
Md. He was honorably mustered out 
of service, April 11, 1866, and settled 
at Coatesville, Pa., as a practising phy- 
sician, Dec. 5, 1873; he entered the 
U. S. Navy as a volunteer Asst. Sur- 
geon, and died at Washington, D. C, 
Jan. 21, 1875, leaving surviving him 
a widow and two sons, Charles Henry, 
and George Loring Porter Stone. Dr. 
Stone graduated at Jefferson Medical 
College, Philadelphia, in 1864. 

Charles A. Stone is now a lieutenant 
in the U. S. Navy. Newton Henry 
Stone, ;//. Ellen Hale, of Bellefonte, 
Pa., dau. of James N. and Jane, Dec, 
29, 1875. Edward Roberts Stone is 
a practising physician in Philadelphia, 
having graduated at Jefferson Medical 
College, in March, 1872 ; he in. Vir- 
ginia, only dau. of W. L. Gilroy, Oct. 
3, 1876. Their sisters, Mary Helen 
and Bessie Stone, are unmarried. 

My old friend, Mr. John F. Gilpin, 
says: "In 181 7, I lived in Wilming- 
ton, Del., and knew Jacob Broom. 
He was a magistrate, and familiary call- 
ed 'Squire Broom.' His son, James 
M. Broom, was a lawyer, and married 
a daughter of Daniel Lowber, a tanner, 
in Wilmington. She was very beauti- 
ful, but became very stout later in life, 
as did also her husband, after he remov- 
ed to Philadelphia. His office was in 
Walnut St., above Third, on the north 
side, next to the office of the late 
Charles Chauncey, Esq. Maria, a 
daughter of Jacob Broom, married Mr. 
Grant, a merchant of Baltimore." 



Miss Montgomery, p. 75, writing of 
James M. Broom, Esq., of "Tusca- 
lum," says: " At an early age he was 
unanimously elected a representative 
to Congress. His ancestors were here 
in the olden times. He practised law 
in Delaware, and honorably represent- 
ed his State. His family were of the 
old Federal party, and he is now ranked 
among the most able and respectable 
lawyers of Philadelphia, whither he 
went more than 30 years ago." He 
was admitted to the Philadelphia Bar 
March 16, 18 18. 

Mr. Gilpin says : " James M. Broom 
was a law partner of the late John 
Wales, U. S. Senator from Delaware. 
I often saw their shingle (/. e., tin 
sign,) on their office window, in Wil- 
mington." 



BROOM & WALES, 
rJ^'Uia'ineuS' at S£aifj-. 



From Drake' s Biogi'aphical Dictioii- 
a?y, p. 128, I copy, as follows: "Ja- 
cob Broome, statesman, delegate to 
the Convention which formed the Fed- 
eral Constitution, died at Philadelphia, 
April, 1810, aged 58 years. He filled 
many offices of honor and trust in Del- 
aware. ' ' His son, "James M. Broome, 
Princeton College, 1794, a member of 
Congress, 1805-7, from Delaware, died 
in 1850." His son, "Jacob Broome. 
Philadelphia Bar, member of Congress 
from Pennsylvania, died 1864. He 
was the candidate of the Native Amer- 
ican party for Presidency of the United 
States, in 1852, along with Dr. Rey- 
nell Coates, of Camden, N. J., for the 
Vice-Presidency, and received a small 
vote in some of the States. The party 
was large, but mismanaged. ' ' During 
the parades and at the meetings of the 



284 



IIISTOKY OF CHESTEK. 



partN- preceding the electii)n, l^rooms j 
and old Coats were carried as party 
standards or emblems. 

••John Broome, merchant, member 
of the New York Constitutional Con- 
vention, 1777 ; Lieut. Governor of New 
York, 1804, died Aug. 1810, aged 72." 
In Allen' s Biographical Dictionary , p. 
144, it is further stated : " He was many \ 
years at the head (^'i various commer- 
cial, charitable and religious institu- 
tions, died at the age of 82." There 
is a county in the State of New York, 
and a street in the city of New York, 
both called Broome, in honor, I pre- 
sume, of the old Lieut. Governor. 
The Broome's of Delaware, New York, 
Pennsylvania and Washington, are all 
relatives, and are a very handsome race. 
I have a copy of a miniature of "Aunt 
Sally Broome," as she is spoken of by 
the older members of the family, taken 
when she was about 18 years of age, 
just after her first marriage, in which 
she has on one of those tall white caps, 
that all married women wore in her 
days ; and despite this disfigurement, 
there is presented to the view, one of 
the most charming and piquant faces 
it is possible for a man of taste to im- 
agine. 

'Abraham Broome, the brother of Ja- 
cob Broome, of Delaware, was a Major 
in the Regular Army of the United 
States, and lived in Washington. His 
eldest son, James M. Broome, was shot 
on board the "Chesapeake," about 
the same moment that Capt. Lawrence 
was carried below mortally wounded. 
Charles and Thomas Broome, two other 
sons of Abraham, were officers in the 
U. S. Marine Corps ; Major John L. 
Broome, of the Marine Corj)s at this 
time, (see Naval Register of 1874,) is 
a son of Charles, just mentioned. He 
was born in and ajjpointcd from the 



State of New York. The late Hon. Ja- 
cob Broom, M. C, from Pennsylvania, 
admitted to the Philadelphia Bar, Apl. 
30, 1832, W.Cornelia Chamberlain, and 
had nine children, viz. : i. James M., 
Captain U. S. Army during the Rebel- 
lion ; 2. Virgilia, w. Dr. Marcellus ; 
3. Elizabeth; 4. Louisa; 5. Helen; 
6. Cornelia; 7. Caroline ; S.Clara, and 
9. Annie. 

The Brooms of America, allege that 
they are descended from the old En- 
glish family of the same name, and 
there is no doubt of the fact, although 
I am unable to connect them with any 
particular branch of that family in En- 
gland, with the very meagre informa- 
tion I have on the subject. Burke, in 
his " General Armory, ''' says: Broome, 
(Herefordshire,) had Arms granted in 
1670 : " sable, on a chevron or, three 
slips of Broom ew/. Crest, a demi- 
eagle or, wings sable, in the beak a slip 
of broom vert.'" Motto, ^'Domini 
Dirige Nos. ' ' 

There are other families of Brome, 
Broom, and Broome, in England, with 
arms and crests all having in one or 
the other, some reference to the family 
name. In " Loiver' s English Sur- 
names, 2d vol. p. 5 and 6, it is stated : 

" The tlirice illustrious name of Plantagenet, 
borne by ei^lit successive kings of England, 
originated with Fouhiucs or Fulke, count of 
Anjou, who nourished in the twelfth century. 
This personage, to expiate some enormous 
crimes of which he had been guilty, went on 
a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and wore in his 
caji as a Vwdge of humility", a Plantagenista, or 
broom plant (which was sometimes used by 
his descendants as a crest), and on that account 
was surnamed Plantagenet. The ancient En- 
glish family of Broome, are said to be descend- 
ants of this nobleman. 

" S(mie authorities deny this, and allege that 
these sovereigns never used it. True ; but this 
does not prove that Plantagenet, was not their 
rcnl family name. Ilcr majesty Queen ^'ic- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



285 



toria, has no occasion whatever for a surname, 
(the design of which is to distinguish one 
family from another,) and therefore it might 
with equal force be argued, that her family 
name was not Guelph. Non-use does not im- 
ply non-possession." (juelph, means wolf, in 
English. 

Henry II., appears to have been the 
first King of England, who used a 
badge or crest. He adopted the Car- 
binicle, the cognisance of the House of 
x\njou, he being the son of the Empress 
Maud, daughter of Henry I. and of 
Plantagenet, Earl of Anjou. His other 
cognisance, (see Clark! s Introduction 
to Heraldry, 83,) was a " Gennet pas- 
sant, between two sprigs of broom." 
x\ gennet, is a small animal of the fox 
species, but not larger than a weasel. 

All English writers seem to be igno- 
rant of the fact that FulkeV., Comte 
d' Anjou, became, despite his humility, 
King of Jerusalem, in 1131, during his 
pilgrimage to the Holy Land. See 
Galaries Historiqucs Du Palais De 
Versailles, 6 vol. part i, p. 30, in which 
the arms on the shield of Foulques V., 
Comte d'Anjou, Roi de Jerusalem, 
1 131, son of Foulques le Richim, are 
thus depicted — " Gules, two Leopards 
or, that is to say, on a red shield there 
are painted two golden leopards. 

" The first of the royal name of Plantagenet, 
who ascended the throne of England was Henry 
1 1 . That name, one of the proudest in English 
history, was adopted to mark the humiliation 
of the noble who first bore it. This was Fulkc, 
Count of Anjou, in the loth century, who, for 
the murder of his nephew, Drogo, Count of 
Brittany, was enjoined by his confessor, by the 
way of penance, to proceed to Jerusalem, and 
to submit to a severe castigation. Dressing 
himself in mean attire he set out, attended 
only by two servants, one to lead him liy a 
halter to the Holy Sepulchre, the other to strip 
and whip him. The Plantagenista, or broom 
plant, being the only tough pliable shrub in 
Palestine, was chosen for his chastisement, and 
he afterwards wore it in his cap as abadge of his 



humility, thus taking his name from the switch 
with which he was scourged." " Genealogy 
and Sui-nanies,'' by IVni. Anderson. 

" Fulke was the father of Godfrey 
Plantagenet, who married Matilda, 
the daughter of Henry I., and widow 
of Henry V., Emperor of Germany. 

Fulke of Anjou, was the son of Azzo 
of Este by his second wife, Garsenda, 
daughter of Baldwin II., who died 
Aug. 1 131, when Fulke succeeded him 
as King of Jerusalem. 

Through an intermarriage with the 
Denney's, the Broome's of England, 
derive a direct descent from Edward 
I . , Ki ng of England . ' ' Burke' s Her- 
aldry. 

I give the above extracts for what 
they are worth ; at all events they are 
pleasing and interesting, and show that 
the romance and prestige of a royal 
line of descent still cling around the 
narne and history of the Broomes. 

Robert Peirce, of Delaware, was a 
tanner, and probably a descendant of 
Edward Peirce, (leather seller,) of 
London, who was one of the associ- 
ation called the "Free Society of 
Traders, founded in London, April 
3, 1682, under a grant from William 
Penn to them of 20,000 acres of land, 
under the title of the 'Manor of 
Frank.' " See Westcotf s History of 
Philadelphia, chap. 18. 

In olden times every Englishman of 
any note, had his coat of arms, crest 
and motto. The chief use to which 
they were applied, was to mark their 
service of silver plate, use as a book- 
mark, paint on their coach panels, or 
display, cut in stone, on their resi- 
dences, generally over the principal 
entrance ; and even in this country, 
in many old volumes of our grand- 
fathers' days, that were owned by 
American gentlemen of English de- 



286 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



scent, will he found its ancient owner's 
book-mark. Henry Hale Graham's, 
has been referred to heretofore. 

The arms of the family of Peirce, of 
London, were " Argent, a fesse humity 
giiks, between three ravens rising sable, 
Crest, a parrot, in its beak an Annu- 
let." 

Watson, in his '■'■Historic Talcs of 
Olden Titnes," 308, says : " In the year 
1788, the bosom of the Delaware was 
first ruffled by a steamboat. The pro- 
prietor, at that early day, was John 
Fitch, watch and clock maker by pro- 
fession." The facts are — The first 
ve.ssel ever moved by steam in the world, 
was a small skiff built by John Fitch, 
and made her first trip on the Dela- 
ware, July 20, 1786, and was propelled 
by paddles. Speed attained was seven 
miles an hour. Engine, three inch 
cylinder. Second boat was 45 ft. long, 
12 ft. beam, 12 inch cylinder; worked 
by paddles. First trial on Aug. 27, 
1787. The third steamboat was built 
by James Rumsey ; tried Dec. 3, 1787, 
at Sheppardstown, Virginia; this boat 
was propelled by sucking water in at 
the bow and ejecting it at the stern ; 
speed, four miles an hour. The fourth 
boat, by Fitch, ran on the Delaware to 
Burlington, 4 miles an hour; propelled 
by paddles at the stern, in July, 1788 ; 
the boat was 60 ft. long, 8 ft. beam, 
engine, 12 inch cylinder. It was not 
until 1807, that Robert Fulton, built 
the '•Clermont,'' and ran heron the 
Hudson River, at a speed of five miles 
an hour. 

During the months of June, July, 
August and September, 1 790, the first 
steamboat successfully navigated in the 
world, for the carriage of freight and 
passengers, ran on the river Delaware, 
between Philadelphia, Burlington, Bris- 
tol. Chester and Wilmington, adver- 



tising her trips regularly in the news- 
papers, and passing over 3000 miles 
that summer. This was 1 7 years be- 
fore the "Clermont," Robert Fulton's 
first boat, navigated the Hudson. This 
steamboat had no name, as will ap- 
pear from the numerous advertisements 
of her trips collected in Thompson, 
^'JVestcott's Life of John Fitch,'' one 
of which I give, from the Federal 
Gazette of July 30, 1790. 

''The Steamboat sets out from 
Arch Street wharf, on Sunday morn- 
ing at 8 o'clock for Chester, to return 
the same day ; and on Thursday fol- 
lowing, at 7 o'clock, for Wilmington 
and Christeen bridge." 

In the New York Magazine for 1 790, 
is an extract from a letter, dated Phil- 
adelphia, Aug. 13th, saying: 

" Fitch's steamboat really performs to a 
charm. It is apleasure while one is on board 
of her in a contrary wind, to observe her supe- 
riority over shallops, sloops, ships, &c., who, 
to gain anything, must take a zigzag course, 
while this, our new invented vessel, proceeds 
in a direct line. On Saturday morning she 
sets off for Chester, and engages to return in 
the evening — -40 miles. God willing I intend 
to be one of the passengers, were it only to 
encourage American ingenuity, and the fine 
arts. Fitch is certainly one of the most in'ge- 
nius creatures alive, and will certainly make 
his fortune. I am told he is now in contem- 
plation to build a steam vessel on a larger 
scale, which may be capable of carrying 
freights and passengers to the West Indies, 
and even to Europe. One great advantage I 
can see in these voyages, which is, the steam- 
ship can make progress in a calm when other 
vessels must lie motionless. How she would 
behave in a gale of wind must be left to ex- 
perience to determine. Having no sails, masts 
or top-hamper to lay to, or scud under, it is 
probable she might at such a lime be in great 
jeopardy." 

I can recall of the steamboats that 
navigated the Delaware in the past : The 
"Robert Mc)rris," a fine, large boat. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



287 



running on the line to Washington, 
via New-Castle and Frenchtown, with 
two smoke-stacks; also, her compan- 
ion, the "Ohio," Capt. Davis, which 
was deemed a very large steamer in 
her day. She had two smoke-stacks, 
two boilers and two vertical walking- 
beams ; for I was aboard of her when 
one boiler became disabled, and we 
got to Chester by the aid of one boiler 
and one paddle. It is hardly neces- 
sary to say that all our river passenger 
steamboats are propelled by side- 
wheels, while most of the freight boats 
are propellers, or are driven by stern - 
screws. 

The old Ohio, is now a tow-boat in 
New York harbor, and looks small 
alongside of the floating palaces that 
run up the Hudson, or the huge steam- 
ers that traverse Long Island Sound, 
on the Boston line. Steamboats, like 
individuals, grow old, and their for- 
tunes change. First, they are splendid 
fast passen ger boats ; as they grow older , 
they carry freight, and in time grow 
dirty and disreputable-looking ; their 
machinery grows stiff and they degen- 
erate into tow-boats, and go up and 
down the river shorn of their deck- 
cabins and gilding, towing dirty coal 
or lime barges. 

At a later day, I recall the "Bal- 
loon," Captain Wilmon Whildin, a 
swift and beautiful boat — her captain 
a handsome and intelligent gentleman. 
One of my friends, William M. Farr, 
married his daughter. The " Pioneer" 
was also a handsome boat, very fast, 
but very crank ; she rolled heavily if 
there was only a slight sea. 

The " Rip Van Winkle," a splendid 
steamboat, ran on the Delaware about 
1847-48. She was one of the Hudson 
River floating palaces, and attracted 
many visitors during her stops at Ches- 



ter, from whence she made excursion 
trips to Cape Island. 

I have a picture of one of the earlier 
steamboats that ran on the river. On 
her wheel-houses and sides was painted 
in large letters, "Marcus Hook, Ches- 
ter, Lazaretto, Wilmington and Phila- 
delphia ; ' ' below these words and above 
her guards, in immense letters, was her 
name, '' jBrandyimne Springs.'''' She 
had two smoke-stacks, and one upright 
walking beam. 

There died at Chester, Feb. 9, 1874, 
Captain Richard Ross, aged 89 years. 
He was the oldest steamboat captain 
on the Delaware, having been in that 
business for 50 years and more. He 
commanded at different times the Wil- 
liam Penn, the Robert Morris and the 
Ohio. 

In the Uplaiid Union, for Dec. 15, 
1829, there appeared this notice : 

" Attention I Pennsylvania Artillerists ! — 
Excursion to the Lazaretto. The corps will 
meet in full uniform, (blue pantaloons,) on 
Thursday, the 24th day of December, inst., at 
7 o'clock, A. M., at Mrs. .Sarah Piper's, Chester, 
to repair on board the steamboat Wilmington, 
Capt. H. Read, who has kindly offered his 
boat for the accommodation of the corps, for 
the purpose of a visit to our esteemed fellow- 
citizen and soldier, George W. Bartram, Esq., 
at the Lazaretto. By order of Capt. William 
Martin. John L. Crosby, O. S. The com- 
pany will hold their stated meeting for drill 
on Saturday evening, the 19th inst., at Mrs. 
Piper's. John K. Zeilin, iVc'/r." 

I cannot state when the above com- 
pany was first formed, nor can I give 
a roll of the members. I have the first 
commission of William Martin, my 
father, as 2d lieutenant of a volunteer 
company, called the " Pennsylvania 
Artillerists," dated Aug. 23, 1821, 
signed by Gov. Joseph Hiester. Also 
his commission as Captain of the same 
company, signed by Governor Andrew^ 
Shultze, May 28, 1825 ; and a second 



288 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



commission as Captain of the same, 
dated Aug. 3, 1828. I have been in- 
formed by my aunt, Mrs. Ann C. Smith, 
that the company was organized about 
1 82 1, and that John James Richards, 
son of Colonel Jacob Richards, was 
its first Captain. John K. Zeilin 
.says, that Captain Richards was suc- 
ceeded in the command of the com- 
pany by Joseph Weaver, Jr. , and af- 
terwards William Martin and John 
K. Zeilin, were in order as Captains. 
The company paraded at the reception 
of Lafayette, in Chester, and was a 
well drilled and efficient company, and 
disbanded about 1833 or '34. While 
my father was in command, one of his 
lieutenants was Thomas Dodd, who 
now lives in Philadelphia. 

Col. Jacob Richards, father of the 
above-named Captain J. J. Richards, 
was admitted to the Philadelphia Bar, 
Feb. 18, 1795, and was a member of 
Congress and Colonel of militia in 
Delaware County. He was a brother- 
in-law of the late Peirce Crosby of 
Cro-sby's Mills, who married Christi- 
ana, a daughter of Jacob Richards, 
the elder. Mrs. Crosby was very proud 
of the handsome race into which she 
had married. She said, " The Cros- 
by's were like the oaks of the forest, 
tall and stately." All the men of the 
family in her day wer^e about six feet 
in height, with blue eyes and light 
brown hair. The second wife of Peirce 
Crosby was Rachel, a daughter of 
Major John James, and cousin of his 
first wife. Col. Jacob Richards, mar- 
ried Elizabeth James, also a daughter 
of Major James, of the State of Dela- 
ware. Mrs. Rachel Crosby, in her 
youth was a famous beauty, and called 
"the belle of Delaware;" another sis- 
ter, Leah, married Jacob Reese, late 
of Phiia(lel].hi;i. I remcmlK-r well, 



Samuel, Ferdinand and George B. 
Reese, their sons. Col. Richards had 
four sons by his marriage ; Jacob, John 
James, William and Edward. Captain 
John James Richards, was admitted to 
the Philadeli)hia Bar, May 25, 1821, 
having been previously, Jan. 19, 1819, 
admitted to the Delaware County Bar. 
He married, 6 mo. 13, 1821, Eliza, 
the daughter of Major William Ander- 
son, and she still resides in Chester. 
He died 6 mo. 27, 1822. Edward 
Richards was admitted to the Dela- 
ware County Bar, July 28, 1823. Their 
cousin, George Richards Grantham, 
was also a member of the Delaware 
County Bar, but I have not the date 
of his admission. 

Dr. Caleb Smith Sayres, a well- 
known physician of Marcus Hook, 
where he settled about 1789, married 
Susan Richards, a daughter of Jacob 
Richards, the elder. Matthias Rich- 
ards Sayres, his son, studied law with 
the Hon. John Sergeant, and w'as ad- 
mitted to the Delaware County Bar, 
July 22, 1 81 6, having been previously 
admitted to the Philadelphia Bar, 
June 6, 1816. He was well known in 
Chester, where he was a great favorite 
with every one, and I have heard la- 
dies of his day speak of him familiarly 
as "Dick Sayres;" a sure evidence of 
his popularity. He lived in Chester, 
practised law there and died there, 
unmarried, 4 mo. 18, 1826, and was 
buried in the old graveyard of St. 
Paul's, although no stone marks the 
spot where his remains repose ; but 
they are no doubt near those of his 
kindred, many of whom were buried 
there also. Mr. Sayres was the writer of 
some excellent pieces of poetry, which 
are in possession of the Bartrams. 

His only other son, Edward Smith 
Sayres, P'.sq., is the present Consul for 



HISTORY OF CHESTEH. 



289 



Brazil, and Vice-Consul for Norway, 
Sweden, Denmark and Portugal, for 
the Port of Philadelphia. He married 
Jane, daughter of John Humes of 
Philadelphia, and has issue: i. Em- 
ma Stalker, and 2. Caroline Augusta, 
both of whom died, unmarried ; also, 
3. Harry ; 4. Edward Stalker Sayres, 
who studied law in the office of John 
Hill Martin, and was admitted to the 
Bar of Philadelphia, Dec. 27, 1873 J 5- 
Horace, and 6. Jennie Humes Sayres. 

Ed. S. Sayres, Jr., as he is com- 
monly styled at the Bar, was, while a 
student, the Recorder of the Law 
Academy of Philadelphia, during the 
session of 1872-3 ; and as has been 
shown, belongs to a family of lawyers. 

Dr. Caleb Smith Sayres, who settled 
as a practitioner of medicine at Marcus 
Hook, came from the vicinity of Eli- 
zabeth, N. J., w^here his ancestors re- 
sided, and where many of their de- 
scendants still live. This family of 
Sayres came from the vicinity of Bos- 
ton, Mass., with the " Elizabethtown 
Associates." The family in Boston 
spell their name Sears, and are the 
descendants of Richard, who came to 
Plymouth, Mass., landing there May 
8, 1630. He came from Amsterdam, 
his ancestors having left England in 
the reign of Henry VIII. on account 
of religious persecutions, leaving a 
large estate in Colchester County, Es- 
sex, which passed through the female 
branch of the family to Sir John Mar- 
sham, only son of Sir John and Esther, 
the daughter of George Sayre. This 
name has been written at different 
times Sarre, Serre, Syer, Sayre, &c. 
The name is of Norman origin. See 
^^ Burke' s Visitation of Arms,'" Lon- 
don, 1853. The family bear for their 
Arms, Gu. a chev. ar. betw. three 
peewits, ppr. garnished, or. Crest, A 



dexter arm, in armor, embowed,^r., 
garnished or, the hand grasping a 
griffin's head (erased) gold. The house 
occupied by the Doctor in Marcus 
Hook, is still standing on Water Street, 
east of Church Street, fronting the 
river, and has a porch running along 
its front. Dr. Sayres was a pew- 
holder, and a generous subscriber to 
the Church Fund of St. Martin's 
Church, at Hook, from the year 1793 
to 1799; the next year Mrs. Susan 
Richards Sayres' name is on the pew- 
list. The tomb of the doctor now 
appears on the floor of the new church 
of St. Martin's, at Marcus Hook, as 
the extension of the old church en- 
closed his place of burial. Engraven 
on his memorial stone are the words : 
" In memory of Caleb S. Sayres, 
Doctor of Physic, who departed this 
life, December 3d, in the year of our 
Lord, 1799, in the 32nd year of his 
age." Besides the two sons mention- 
ed, the doctor had a daughter, Caro- 
line Augusta, who died unmarried. 
After the doctor's death, his widow 
married John Galvin, an officer in the 
navy, by whom she had a daughter, 
Caroline, who married Eleazer Twin- 
ing McDowell, Esq., a prominent mem- 
ber of the Bucks County Bar; they had 
issue, Georgine, who died unmarried ; 
Aletta, m. John H. Fine ; Fannie, m. 
Harry F. West ; and Edward Sayres 
McDowell, Lt. of Co. K, 104 Penna. 
Volunteers, who was killed at the battle 
of "Fair Oaks, Va." 

The family of Richards appear in 
the records of St. Martin's Church, as 
vestrymen and pewholders from a re- 
mote period, but for some reason they 
buried their dead in the old grave- 
yard of St. Paul's Church, Chester. I 
found the following inscriptions there: 
I "Edward Richards, Esq., died April 



'J9U 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



13, 1794, aged S3 yt'^^rs, 5 months, 3 
days. Susanna, wife of Jacob Rich- 
ards, Esq., died August loth, 1794, 
aged 58 years, i month. Elizabeth 
Richards, wife of Jacob Richards, Esq., 
died July 15, 1807, aged 34 years, 3 
months and 15 days. Jacob Richards, 
died July 20, 181 6, aged 43 years." 

Jacob Richards, the elder, and Su- 
sanna his wife, had two sons and five 
daughters. The sons were, Col. Jacob 
Richards, M. C, above mentioned, and 
Edward, who died unmarried. The 
daughters were ; Ann, who married, 
first, Samuel Price, and secondly, 
"Squire Marshall." 2. Betsy (Eli- 
zabeths who married Charles Gran- 
tham. 4. Kitty (Christiana), who 
married Peirce Crosby. 4. Sarah, who 
married Dr. Samuel Anderson ; and 
5. Susan, who married Dr. Caleb 
Smith Sayres. 

Among the arrivals in the " Vine," 
on the 17th of the 7th mo., 1684, is 
John Richards and Susan his wife, and 
daughters Hannah and Bridget, and 
one servant, Susan Griffeth, for 8 
years. 

Joseph Richards, with his wife Jane, 
and family, settled in Chichester, as 
early as 1685. He was a Friend. His 
daughter Ann ?;/. Humphrey Scarlet, 
and Susanna ;;/. James Lownes, of 
Springfield. His sons, Joseph and 
Nathaniel, lived in the lower part of 
Aston. They were from Oxfordshire. 
Joseph Richards died in 1710. His 
son Nathaniel died in 1700, leaving 
William, Nathaniel, Elizabeth and 
Mary. 

I think it jjrobable that Matthias and 
John Richards were cousins of the 
children of Col. Jacob. Dr. Sayres 
named one of his boys, Matthias Rich- 
ards Sayres. Matthias Richards, was 
born 1757; Judge of Bucks County, 



Pa., 1788 to 1797; Representative in 
Congress from 1807 to 181 1 ; died in 
1830. John Richards, was a Repre- 
sentative in Congress from 1795 to 
1 797 ; whether he represented Delaware 
and Chester, I cannot determine au- 
thoritatively. He may have represent- 
ed Bucks. Lauman's Congressional 
Directory says, Richard Thof?ias, an 
old Revolutionary soldier, was in Con- 
gress from 1795 to 1801, and Dr. Dar- 
lington says, he represented the dis- 
trict composed of Delaware and Ches- 
ter Counties. 



XXX. 

The following sketch of the Gran- 
tham ^mily, was furnished me by Ed- 
ward Stalker Sayres, Esq., of the Phil- 
adelphia Bar. 

" Charles Grantham* owned a farm 
of 128 acres adjoining the old Eftin- 
ger property. The estate extended 
from the Delaware River to the Ches- 
ter road. He married Elizabeth Rich- 
ards, daughter of Jacob Richards, 
the elder, and had three sons, Isaac, 
George Richards, Charles E., and 
one daughter, Susan. None of them 
ever married. Isaac attended to his 
father's estate. George Richards Gran- 
tham studied law with Samuel Ed- 

■•■■' Charles (Irautuin, (as the name is j,eiie- 
rally given,) was commissioned a Justice of 
the Peace as early as 1741. He married 
(tirst) Catharine, daughter uf Andrew (?) and 
Margaret Morton, of Ridley, who left three 
sons, George, Jacob and Charles Grantum. 
He was in the Commission of the Peace for 
the county of Chester, in 174 1, 1745, 1749 
and 1752. The name is given in the Col. 
Rec. as Charles Grant, but in the Minutes of 
the Orphans' Court from 1752 to 1757, Charles 
Grantum's name frequently appears among 
those of the Justices holding the Court, but no 
name of Grant. Charles Grantum attended 
Dec. 21, 1756. A new Commission of the 
Peace was issued Feb. 22, 1757, in which he 
was not included. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



291 



wards, Esq., and was admitted to 
practice. Charles was engaged in 
business in Philadelphia, and died in 
that city. The Granthams got into 
pecuniary difificulties about 45 years 
ago, and were compelled to dispose of 
their farm ; they then all removed to 
Doylestown, and from thence to Illi- 
nois, where they all died, as I have 
said, unmarried. Isaac, was the sur- 
vivor; he died in the year 1858, and 
left his estate to Mrs. Dr. Samuel An- 
derson, of Chester. Charles E. Gran- 
tham, died August 20, 1 81 5, aged 17 
years and 6 month, and is buried in 
old Chester church-yard. 

In company with my father, Edward 
Smith Sayres, I visited the old Gran- 
tham property on Oct. 26, 1873. We 
had quite a chat with the person who 
lives in the old Grantham house, which 
is situated about 200 yards from the 
river. The walls are two feet six 
inches in thickness, and the whole 
building is in excellent condition. 
The late owner, a Mr. Dennis, plaster- 
ed the whole of the edifice fronting 
the railroad, and the two ends. I 
cannot imagine what it was done for, 
as the house was built of cut stone, 
and the side fronting the river still re- 
mains in its original state, looking far 
prettier than the portions covered with 
the showy white plaster. The Effin- 
ger farm adjoined the Grantham pro- 
perty, and the old Effinger house was 
separated from the Granthams by but 
one field. The Effinger house was 
standing until within a few years ; 
latterly it was used as a fish-house. 
The Efifingers have lived for a good 
many years back in the old yellow 
house, adjoining the beautiful and ad- 
mired collection of forest trees, known 
as ' ' Effinger' s Woods. ' ' The remains 
of the old lane which ran down from 

88 



the Chester road, are still to be seen. 
It ran alongside of Efifinger's Woods, 
and was used by the Granthams and- 
Effingers jointly, as it divided their pro- 
perties. The Granthams were known 
through the country as Grants, antl the 
rocks in the river opposite their house 
were called "Grant's Rocks." Our 
informant told us, that they are to this 
day called by the same name, and are a 
resort for persons fishing for perch, as 
that fish is plenty in their vicinity. 
These very rocks, my father tells me, 
prevented the Granthams from obtain- 
ing, in olden times, as high a price 
for their shad-fishery as their neigh- 
bors, the Efifingers, who got, I believe, 
^800 per annum, while they could 
only get $300. My father says that he 
recollects the Granthams living in their 
new house on Chester road, in a direct 
line back from the old one that still 
stands by the river-side and before de- 
scribed. The site is now occupied by 
the house of the late owner, Mr. N. F. 
H. Dennis, who has ingeniously turn- 
ed the old Grantham quarry, which is 
situated near the house, into a fish- 
pond. This quarry produced a stone 
from which Mr. Grantham manufac- 
tured scythe stones. They were ex- 
tensively sold in Philadelphia, and 
branded as " Crum Creek Scythe 
Stones." Mr. G. employed quite a 
number of men in quarrying and dress- 
ing these stones. 

I cannot find who bought the pro- 
perty from the Granthams. I was told 
that the Bank of Delaware County, sold 
it about 16 years ago, to Mr. Dennis, 
of Philadelphia, a Frenchman, and an 
extensive manufacturer of quinine. 
This Mr. D. also bought the adjoining 
property, — I think, the old Trimble 
property, which joined Grantham's 
property on the east. I do not know 



292 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



\vh()thcGi"antliamsl)C)iight the property 
from. My father thinks it had been 
in the family for a long time. I believe 
the (Iranthanis were originall) of Kng- 
lish descent, from tjie name, whit h is 
purely English. Mr. N. F. H. Dennis 
died at his residence in Ridley, Sept. 
5, 1872, aged 73 years." 

The old Trimble i)roperty, as Mr. 1 
Sayres calls it, was occupied by Abra- 
ham Trimble. The mansion of that 
estate is on the west side of Ridley creek. 

Lewis Trimble purchased the Gran- 
tham property I suppose, as he lived in 
the old Grantham residence mention- 
ed, which was situated near the quarry. 
He built the new mansion now occu- 
pied by Mrs. Dennis, and tore down the 
house formerly standing between the 
quarry and the road. Lewis Trimble 
disposed of the property to the mother- 
in-law of Richard C. Risley, the well- 
known acrobat, who, with his two 
sons, gave very entertaining exhibitions 
about 20 years ago, in Philadelphia and 
elsewhere. 

Richard Risley Carlisle, better known 
as " Professor Risley," who about 15 or 
20 years ago, occupied the place now 
in the tenure of Mrs. Dennis, in Rid- 
ley, near to Leiperville, died at Phila- 
delphia, May 25, 1874, aged 60 years. 
He was born near Tuckerton, New Jer- 
sey, and went to Philadelphia when 
(piite a young man, and engaged in the 
business of glass cutting and dealing in 
glass, having his warehouse and factory 
in Third Street near Arch. He failed 
in busine.ss, and being a proficient in 
athletic sports and a man of great per- 
sonal strength and endurance, he went 
upon the stage as an Acrobat and Gym- 
nastic performer, and was very succe.ss- 
ful in the exhibitions he gave, assisted 
by his two little sons, handsome lads 
of 5 and 6 years of age, whom he threw 



about in a graceful manner. With his 
sons, John and Harry, he travelled 
over all the United States and Europe, 
and made money. His first ai)pearancc 
was at Welsh' s Circus, in 1838. In 
Eurojjc he performed before many of 
the crowned heads and nobility, and 
engaged in contests with local athletes. 
He was a heavy-built man of medium 
height, and to the last, presented the 
appearance of a man of great bodily 
strength; he was a fine wrestler, skater 
and swimmer, with a fine musical voice, 
and performed with taste upon the flute. 
Hissonsgrowingto manhood, Mr. Ris- 
ley visited Japan in 1848, and brought 
out to this country the first troupe of 
'R.oydX Acrobats diWd Wrestlers, an enter- 
prise which cost him much money but 
brought him no profit. At one time 
he exhibited a Panorama of the Mis- 
sissippi River at the Masonic Hall at 
Philadelphia, and rapidly made money. 
Later in life he appears to have been 
very unfortunate in his undertakings, 
and his sons, to whom the estate de- 
scended through their mother, sold the 
farm at Ridley, and removed to Phila- 
delphia, where he died, poor, deserted 
and deprived of reason, so say the 
daily journals; yet I saw him in the 
month of March last, (1874,), and al- 
though he looked his age, and walked 
as if stiff in the joints, he was well 
dressed and had a handsome travelling 
bag in his hand. 

I went to school at Ridley school house 
with Lewis Trimble's son Henry, and 
also with Abraham Trimble's children, 
Abraham Jr., and Mary Trimble, who 
was one of the prettiest girls I ever saw. 
All of the surviving members of the 
Trimble family reside, I believe, in 
Philadelphia. I frequently meet Hen- 
ry on the street. I can remember see- 
ing scythe-stones tpiarried from the 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



293 



quarry back of Lewis Trimble's house, 
when I was a boy. I think there was 
also a whetstone quarry on Abraham 
Trimble's place. At that time the best 
whetstones were made by old Robert 
Blythe, who lived on the land of the 
late William Hill, just west of the Hill's 
dam, on little Crum creek, in Ridley. 
At one time the four brothers Hill, 
Peter, George W., William and John 
F. , owned adjoining farms in the vicini- 
ty of the dam referred to, which was 
then, I believe, the only dam on little 
Crum creek. There are evidences of 
a dam and race on that stream, below 
the old Queen's road, and on the "Is- 
land Field' ' place, lately owned by John 
F. Hill, now the property, I am inform- 
ed, of John O. Deshong. 

In the old graveyard of St. Paul's 
Church, Chester, is a tombstone, among 
the memorial stones of the Richards' 
family, with the following inscription 
cut upon it : "Charles E.Grantham, son 
of Charles and Elizabeth Grantham, 
born Feb. i8, 1798, died, Aug. 20, 
1815, aged seventeen years and six 
months." 

Among the papers of Dr. Caleb Smith 
Sayres, of Marcus Hook, who, it is well 
to note, fell a victim to over exertion 
in his practice during the prevalence 
of the yellow fever, was found a doc- 
ument in the following words : 

" T9 Doc'r Sayres, Sir ! Reposing Especial 
Trust and confidence in your Patriotism, Skill 
and abilities, I do by these presents Constitute 
and appoint You to be Surgeon of the Eight 
Battalion of Militia, formerly in the County 
of Chester, but now in the County of Delaware. 
Given under my hand and seal at Chester, in 
the County of Delaware aforesaid, the eighth 
day of April, in the Year one thousand and 
seven hundred and ninety. 

Edw'd Vernon, Lt. Col." 

Edward Vernon m. Hannah James, 
(his second wife), she was the widow of 



David Cowpland. In Friends' records 
it appears that Hannah Vernon, widow 
of David Cowpland, was disowned 
9, 22, 1786, for marriage by a hire- 
ling minister, to Edward Vernon. And 
again; Edward Vernon, (of Provi- 
dence Meeting,) was disowned 3, 22, 
1 771, for marriage by a priest, (a 
minister.) Probably this was his first 
marriage. David Cowpland m. 6 mo. 
II, 1772, Hannah James, dau. of Saml. 
dec'd, and Joanna. Jemima Dazey 
Vernon, dau. of Edward and Hannah, 
;;/. Chester Clarke; their son Edward 
Vernon Clarke, resides in New York 
City. Edward and Hannah Vernon 
lived near Marcus Hook, where he died , 
about 1794 or 95. Ed. Vernon's first 
wife was Mary Mather, dau. of James, 
who in his will appears to have been 
desirous to entail his estate on the 
male line of his grand-son, Peter Ma- 
ther Vernon, who, however, died in 
infancy. (See.^;//^, p. 130.) He also 
mentions his daughter Rebecca Van- 
leer, but no son or grand-child of the 
name of Mather. 

The three brothers, Vernon, came 
from England to Pennsylvania, about 
the period of Penn's first arrival in his 
Province. Thomas came from Stan- 
thorne, in Cheshire, and served as a 
juror at the first Court held in Chester 
County. Court first met Feb. 14, 1682, 
"& adjourned unto y* 27th of y^same 
month;" the minutes state: "At the 
same cort by Adjournment until y^ 
afores'^2 7thffeb'" 1682," after four cases 
being attended to, that of John Mar- 
tin, Plaint, and Rich" Dymon,* Deft. 
was Trycd, the Jurors were William 
Rawson, James Browne, William 
Hewes, Walter Martin, Nath. Evans, 

* Richard Dymond was master of the Amity, 
and the suit was for some goods shipped on 
that ve-ssel, but not delivered to Martin. 



294 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



Joshua Hastings, Will"" Woodmanson, 
Tho. Colboiirne (properly Coebourne) 
Albert Hendrickson, Joseph Richards, 
Edward Carter and Tho: Vcrjion. 
He was a Friend, and died in 1698. 
Randall Vernon, the second brother, 
emigrant, came from "Sandy way," 
Cheshire. He served in the Assembly, 
1 687, was an active member of Friends, 
and died in 1725, aged 85 yrs. ; his 
wife's name was Sarah, she died 1719. 
The three brothers settled in Nether 
Providence, their lands adjoining each 
other. Robert came from Sioakc, in 
Cheshire ; he was a Friend, and Month- 
ly Meetings were sometimes held at his 
house. In 1 710 he conveyed his brick 
messuage and 330 acres of land, where 
he resided, to his son Jacob; his wife 
Eleanor, came to America with him; 
she died in 1720, the date of his death 
is unknown. 

This family of Sayres are intermar- 
ried with the family of David Hume, 
the English historian, and author of 
Hume' s History of England. Samuel 
Humes, the original emigrant to Ameri- 
ca, came from near Ballimony, county 
Antrim, Ireland, and .settled at Lan- 
caster, in this State. He was a maker 
of the old fashioned spinning wheels, 
so common in the days of our grand- 
mothers. He became quite rich, and 
has many descendants living in this 
State and Maryland at the present time. 
He was the grandfather of Jane, the 
wife of Edward Smith Sayres. Mr. 
Hume, the original settler here, added 
the final s to his name, for fear that he 
jnight be taken for a descendant of the 
historian, who was an infidel, he being 
a strict Presbyterian. What he con- 
sidered a reproach, was not the descent, 
which is a matter of pride, but the 
opinions of his relative. John Humes, 
the son of Samuel, was formerly Regis- 



ter of Wills of Philadelphia from 1830 
to 1836. Dr. Samuel Humes, the 
youngest son of Samuel, was an emi- 
nent physician of Lancaster. He 
graduated at the University of Penn- 
sylvania, in 1808. He was Treasurer 
of Lancaster County in 1816. John 
Humes, as the eldest son of Samuel, 
became heir to the ancestral estate 
in Ireland, but refused to avail himself 
of his right, as he would have had to 
reside in Ireland to get and keep pos- 
session. The holders of estates in Ire- 
land are compelled by law to reside 
there a portion of the time. In con- 
sequence of his refusal the Hume estate 
there passed to an officer of the English 
army, bearing the family name, so says 
tradition. Be that as it may, there 
were lately living near Ballimony, a Dr. 
George Hume, adistinguished surgeon, 
and the Rev. Lawrence Hume Fenner, 
near Carrigallen. 

Sarah Humes, a daughter of Samuel, 
the emigrant, married George Bryan 
Porter, late Governor of the State of 
Michigan, one of whose sons was the 
late Gen. Andrew Porter, of the Regu- 
lar Army of the United States. David 
R. Porter, who was Governor of this 
State from 1839 to 1845, ^^'^s a brother 
of Gov. Porter of Michigan, and father 
of Gen. Horace Porter, late of the 
Army. William A. Porter, Esq., of 
the Philadelphia Bar, and sometime an 
associate Justice of the Supreme Court 
of this Commonwealth, is a son of the 
late Gov. David R. Porter; and James 
Madison Porter, Esq., of the Easton 
Bar, is a son of James Madison Porter, a 
brother of our late Governor. The late 
Judge, George Porter of Reading, was 
an uncle of the two Governors; his 
daughter married Robert Dechert, 
Esq., of the Reading Bar, and their two 
sons, Henrv M. and Col. Robert P. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



295 



Dechert, are members of the Philadel- 
phia Bar. This family of Porters are of 
Irish descent. The grandfather of the 
two Governors, Robert Porter, emigrat- 
ed early in the last century to this coun- 
try from the North of Ireland, near 
Londonderry. Their father's name 
was Andrew Porter, born in 1 743. He 
was the Colonel of the 4th Regiment 
of Artillery in the Revolutionary Army. 
For further particulars, see Armor's 
Lives of the Governot-s of Pennsylvania. 
Humes Porter, who used to be a fre- 
quent visitor to Chester, is of this fami- 
ly, and resides in Lancaster. 

Samuel Humes, the settler in this 
State, married Mary Hamilton of Lan- 
caster Co. ; they had issue : John, a mer- 
chant of Philadelphia, at one time sen- 
ior member of the firm of Humes & Et- 
ting, flour and commission merchants. 
He was the Register, and successor to 
the Irish estate. James Humes, a manu- 
facturer, he had extensive woolen mills 
at Humesville, Lancaster County, Pa. , 
in 1 81 2. He organized a company of 
militia and marched with his command 
toElkton, Md.,duringthe war of 1812. 
One of his sons, Samuel Crane Humes, 
now resides at Cincinnati, Ohio. Dr. 
Samuel Humes. Sarah, who mar- 
ried George B. Porter of Michigan. 
William Humes, a merchant of Phila- 
delphia. He was a private in Hartman 
Kuhn's company, ist Regt., Pa. vol- 
unteer Infantry in the war of 181 2-14, 
and Mary Humes who died unmar- 
ried. 

The Home or Hume family were at 
one time, one of the most powerful of 
the Scottish nobility. Hume Castle, 
in Berwickshire, the old seat of this 
family, occupied a commanding posi- 
tion at the western extremity of the 
great plain of the Merse ; it was held 
against Cromwell's forces for a long pe- 



riod ; the Governor of it on being sum- 
moned to surrender replied, "That he 
knew not Cromwell, and for his castle, 
it was built upon a rock." Four days 
later, it having been reported that the 
castle had surrendered, it is said the 
Governor sent the following curious 
letter: 

" I, William of the Wastle, 
Am now in my castle, 
And awe the dogs in the town 
Shand garre me gang down." 

David Hume, the Historian, was the 
son of the Laird of Ninewells, in Ber- 
wickshire, near the Scottish border, and 
the nephew of a Scotch peer, the Earl 
of Home. A curious codicil to David's 
will was one leaving to his friend, John 
Home of Kildufif, (the author of Doug- 
las), six dozen of port wine, provided 
that he attested under his hand, signed 
John Hume, that he had finished a bot- 
tle at two sittings ; the philosopher and 
his friend John, had many disputes as 
to the proper way of spelling their com- 
mon family name, and that was the in- 
tent of the codicil. 

The armorial crest of the Humes fami- 
ly is a lion's head, erased, or, Motto, 
True to the end. 

I have spoken several times of the 
Field family of Philadelphia, as having 
been former residents of Delaware 
County. My friend Samuel Field, was, 
until very lately, for many years a resi- 
dent of the neighborhood of Walling- 
ford station, on the line of the West 
Chester and Philadelphia Railroad, 
and Frank Field, who married Sallie, 
the daughter of Rev. Anson B. Hard, 
of Chester, and makes his summer resi- 
dence at that place, thus keeping up 
the family-liking for their old home. 
As one of these, my boyhood's friend, 
says : ' ' The very sound of the name of 
Delaware County has a charm to my 



296 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



ear. What a host of endearing recol- 
lections crowd the mind connected with 
it! The old Ridley place, 'Grand- 
father Hill's,' the marshes along the 
Delaware; oh, those boyhood days ! O, 
would I were a boy again !" and I can 
add, the pleasant memories of the happy 
days we have passed together along the 
shores of the Delaware, where we fished, 
gunned, sailed, and enjoyed the sum- 
mer days of our boyhood, will not be 
forgotten, while memory remains, nor 
the unalloyed friendship, began at 
Chester, which has lasted over thirty- 
five eventful years. 

In the Report of Benjamin Pearson, 
made in 1826, the old mill property 
occupied by the father of my friends, 
is thus described : "No. 7. On Ridley 
creek, in Lower Providence, an old 
snuff mill, lately employed in pulveriz- 
ing medicines; head and fall about nine 
feet ; owned and occupied by Park Shee, 
Esq." 

While Charles Field occupied the 
above property, he employed the mill j 
for grinding bark, used as a medicine for 
fevers, but the business was destroyed 
by the introduction of quinine. The 
bark ground was, I presume, Peruvian 
bark. Mr. Field, after the destruction 
of his business, sold the property to 
Park Shee, (it is now owned by Antrim 
Osborne, 1 and removed to Philadel- 
phia, where he soon became a leading 
merchandise broker, for the sale of 
sugar, molasses and coffee by the cargo, 
in which he was succeeded by Field & 
Keehmle, and upon the retirement of 
Mr. Wm. Keehmle, in 1872, the firm 
became Samuel and Frank Field. 

Charles Field was a son of Nathan 
and Sarah. He married Catharine, a 
daughter of Dr. John White of Phila- 
delphia, and they had a numerous fami- 
ly, vi/: I. John W. Field, who m. 



Eliza, daughter of the late Richard 
Peters, Jr., who edited the U. S. Su- 
preme Court Reports for many years. 
2. Charles Field, Jr., who in. Mary 
B. Berry, and d. leaving a widow and 
three children, Kate, Eleanor and 
Charles. "Nellie," in. Aug. i, 1876, 
Edwin A. Pue. 3. Wm. Yardley Field, 
in. Eliza, dau. of James Bell, dec'd. He 
died, Jan'y 8, 1861, without issue. 4. 
Elizabeth Stanley, and 5, Susan W., 
both of whom died single. 6. Samuel 
Field, in. to Mary, daughter of Dr. 
Robert M. Patterson, and have one 
son, Robert, and one daughter, Mary 
Stanley. 7. Thomas Yardley Field, a 
Lt. Col. in the United States Marine 
Corps, in. to Margaret, a daughter of 
Hugh Elliott, a Scotchman, now de- 
ceased, a member of the once well known 
book house of Gregg & Elliott. They 
have Thomas Y., Jr., and Elliott Field. 
8. Sarah, unmarried. 9. Frank Field, 
who ///. Sallie Hard of Chester. They 
have issue, Frank H. and Susan W. 10. 
Catharine W. Field, m. to the Rev. 
James B. Crane, of Elizabeth, New 
Jersey. He was a chaplain in the U. 
S. Volunteers during the Rebellion, 
and died leaving her a widow with one 
son, Burnet Crane. She married, 2nd, 
Louis Charles Carra, of Parma, Italy, 
June 14, 1874. II, Edward Field, 
who died unmarried. Mr. and Mrs. 
Field had several other children who 
died in infancy. Susan, Samuel and 
Thomas Y., were born at the old mill 
in Delaware County. 

The Rev. Anson B. Hard had seve- 
ral children, viz: Mary, Laura W., 
Sallie, who ;//. Frank Field ; Louisa, 
wife of Henry K. Kelly, who have 
issue, Howard A., Louisa W., Nettie, 
Maggie and Dora. Hr. Hard's only 
son, Anson W. Hard, resides in New 
York, where he married Sallie, daugh- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



297 



ter of James Brown, and has one son, 
John B. Hard. 

The following interesting proceed- 
ings of a public meeting are given for 
the purpose of showing who were en- 
gaged in the business of furnishing 
stone for the erection of the Delaware 
Breakwater, the price of stone, &c., 
and as it is a part of the history of that 
great enterprise: 

" At a meeting of a number of gentlemen, 
interested and engaged in quarrying stone on 
the Delaware River, held in the Borough of 
Chester, on Wednesday, the nth of Jan., 
1832, John F. Hill, was called to the chair, 
and Albei-t Eobinson, of Delaware, and Wil- 
liam Martin, of Pennsylvania, were appointed 
Secretaries, when the following preamble and 
resolutions were unanimously adopted : 

Whereas, We deem the encouragement of 
monopolies to be inconsistent with the rights 
of freemen, and dangerous and oppressive in 
their tendency ; and being more fully con- 
vinced of this fact from past experience, the 
dread of further oppression has induced us to 
attempt an exposition of our grievances, for 
the purpose of obtaining redress. In attempting 
this, it is not our intention to say anything dis- 
respectful of the government, but to prevent, 
if possible, the effects of unfair representations. 

In the year 1830, the United States con- 
tracted with several individuals for the de- 
livery of stone, at the Capes of the river Dela- 
ware, for the purpose of constructing a Break- 
water at that point. Owing to the competition 
that year, between the contractors, a fair price 
was obtained for our stone, and most of us, as 
sub-contractors, sent stone to that work in 
Messrs. Leipers & Co.'s contract ; but the last 
year, the contract for the whole of the stone 
wanted, of the description sent in 1830, was 
given to two companies, Messrs. Leipers & 
Co. on the Delaware, and White & Co. on the 
North River. White & Co. being unable to 
furnish stone at the contract price (2.20 per 
perch,) from the North River, or for some 
other reason, transferred their contract to 
Leipers & Co. in preference to others who 
offered them their own terms. Thus, every 
opportunity of sending stone to the Break- 
water, but through Leipers & Co., was closed. 

Leipers & Co. obtained their contract, with- 



out our having the slightest knowledge that 
the Government was prepared to make any. 
Immediately on learning that Congress was 
about to make an appropriation for continuing 
the work at the Breakwater, we appointed a 
committee to enquire of the government 
whether proposals for supplying stone would 
be received, when, for the first time, to our 
astonishment, we learned that Leipers & Co. 
had obtained the whole contract for the Dela- 
ware. 

The effect of this monopoly has been to 
paralyze the exertions of all — to prevent some 
from sending any stone, and others to abandon 
the business as soon as possible ; and those 
that did send were compelled to pay Leipers 
& Co. a Bounty of 20 cents a perch for the 
privilege. Thus they realize from otir lalior 
about $15,000, without leaving us one cent of 
profit, and, in some instances, a suiificiency to 
meet the cost and expenses of quarrying. The 
total quantity of stone sent to the Breakwater 
the last year being about one hundred thousand 
perch, Leipers & Co. not supplying more than 
fifteen thousand perch from their quarries. 

We were, in a measure, compelled to sub- 
mit to the payment of this bounty, as many of 
us were at that time extensively engaged, and 
at great expense, in getting out stone for the 
Breakwater, and having large quantities on 
hand, which were suitable for no other pur- 
pose, we had no alttrnative left us but to sell 
upon their own terms, or abantlon the business 
at a great loss. 

If Leipers & Co. could have supplied, from 
their own quarries, a majority of the stone, 
there might have been a shadow of justice in 
the measure ; and this, we presume, the gov- 
ernment supposed, from the quantity which 
appeared as sent in their names in 1S30; but 
the fact is, that many of us can send as many 
as any of the concern ; and some of us can 
send more than the combined quarries of the 
Leipers & Co. 

We have felt it our duty as citizens, and 
our right as freemen, freely to assert our opin- 
ions. We cannot, and, if in our power, will 
not, suffer influences to be exerted and advan 
tages to be taken which we conceive alike in- 
jurious to ourselves and to the public. And, 

Whereas, From circumstances too evident 
to be mistaken, we are persuaded that exer- 
tions are now making by the same concern to 
obtain the whole contract for the ensuing sea- 



21)8 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



son, iiolwitlistamliiii^ proposals liave been 
made, on the pan of the L'niled States, l)y 
Major Bender, to w it : 

' That proposals will be received until the 
14th inst., for stone, to be delivered at the 
Breakwater, from every responsible person, 
who will contract to deliver 5,000 tons, at 
$1.80 per ton, for stone weighing from a quar- 
ter to two and a (piarlcr tons, and $2.50 per 
ton for those of twi) and a half to five tons, 
between the ist of April and the 1st of Nov. 
next.' Therefore, 

Jiesok'et/, That we approve of the plan and 
terms proposed by Major Bender, on the part 
of the United States — that we will hold our- 
selves severally and individually responsible 
for the delivery, at the Breakwater, of 120,000 
tons of stone, or more if wanted — provided that 
the proposals already made by us, agreeable 
to Major Bender's terms, be confirmed by 
government. 

/iesoh'fd. That should Leipers & Co., again 
obtain the contract for supplying the United 
States with Breakwater stone, we will not as 
sub-contractors, supply them with any for that 
work. 

Resolved, That Dr. Gideon Jacques, of Dela- 
ware, R. Churchman, and S. M'llvain, of 
Pennsylvania, be a committee to submit these 
proceedings to the proper departments of gov- 
ernment, and make such explanations relative 
to the contract, as may be most conducive to 
the views of this meeting. 

Resolved, That the proceedings of this meet- 
ing be signed by the Chairman and Secretai-v, 
together with the gentlemen present, and 
those engaged in the quarrying business, 
friendly to these measures, with the names of 
their cpiarries. 

John F. IIii.i., Chairman, 

Crum Creek Quarries. 

Al.liKKT R(JHINSON, ) .• 

Wii.Li.v.M Martin, | Secretaries. 

Robinson, Carr & Co., Quarry vilie. 
Thomas Clyde, Ridley Creek Quarry. 
Robert Churchman, Ridley Creek. 
Spencer M'Hvaine, Ridley Creek. 
Jonathan Roberts, Christiana Creek. 
William D. Shoemaker, Ridley Creek. 
^'oung & Murray, Chester. 
John Hawkins, Ridley Creek. 
Ranibo & I'erry, I )elaware near Quarryville. 
Isaac Henvis, Chester Creek. 



William Hill, Crum Creek. 
Thomas B. Shoemaker, Ridley Creek, 
tiewes iS: Harrison, Naaman's Creek. 
John Burk, Ridley Creek. 
Jonathan I'. Worral, Chester Creek. 
A. M. W^right & Co., Crum Creek. 
Samuel Lytle, Chester Creek. 

A short description of the " Dela- 
ware Breakwater," located near Cape 
Henlopen, and the mouth of the Dela- 
ware Bay, may add interest to the 
foregoing proceedings. From my old 
friend and class-mate, Lt. Col. John 
D. Kurtz, of the U. S. Corps of En- 
gineers, who is now in charge of the 
Government works and improvements 
on the river Delaware, I obtained most 
of the following information — premis- 
ing however, that from earliest youth, 
I have been familiar Avith this great 
national work, having lived at the 
quarries in Delaware County, that fur- 
nished a great part of the stone with 
which it is constructed, and that many 
of my relatives were contractors for 
supplying the same. I remember vi- 
vidly the process of quarrying the 
large masses of material necessary, 
the huge stones, varying in size, and 
weighing from two to seven tons ; the 
immense excavations made in the earth 
in the process of quarrying out the 
rock. Many of these are still to be 
seen filled with water, which is clear 
and cold, and most of them are full of 
cat-fish, sun-fish and roach. In the 
quarries, great numbers of Irishmen 
were employed in drilling deep holes 
in the rocks, for the reception of the 
blasting powder, to break the stone as 
it lay in the original mass. I can recall 
the thunderous roar of the "blasts," 
like unto the sound of the explosion 
of a heavy piece of ordnance, or the 
heavy, deep thud of a "sand-blast," 
accompanied b}- a tremble of the earth 
— a small earthcjuake ! The large jjairs 



II 1 S T ( ) Ji Y (J F il E S T E li . 



^99 



of wheels that carried the broken rock 
to the shallops, on Crum or Ridley 
Creeks, were drawn by oxen ; six or 
eight pairs being necessary to draw the 
larger sized stones. Large cranes were 
erected at the landing places on the 
banks of the creeks, by the use of which 
the stone was swung on board the sloops 
or schooners that carried it to the 
Breakwater, near Cape Henlopen. 
Weigh-masters appointed by the Unit- 
ed States, marked on each stone its 
weight, before it was shipped on board 
the vessels. Each quarry had its black- 
smith shop, wheelwright shop, its 
boarding houses, its powder house, its 
store, &c. ; and its owner, bosses, 
weigh-masters, laborers, ox-drivers, 
and other employees and their families, 
formed quite a little community. The 
store was the centre of attraction for 
all hands when the work of the day 
was over. On a fine evening nearly 
all the principal men of each com- 
munity gathered around its doors. 
" The Boss," (the owner of the quarry,) 
the bosses of the different gangs of 
workmen, and those pompous Gov- 
ernment officials, the weigh-masters, 
the remembrance of whose official dig- 
nity oppresses me yet. I thought then 
that Major Richard Delafield, the en- 
gineer officer in charge of the work, 
was the great man of his day. Lieut. 
Carlos A. Waite, his assistant, was in 
fny eyes, a very dignified person, he 
came next, and then the weigh-masters. 
Lieut. Waite, had his office in Ches- 
ter, in the small square building still 
standing at the N. E. corner of Gra- 
ham street and Edgmont avenue, op- 
posite the site of the first Meeting 
House of Friends. It was then, in 
1833, surrounded by fine large trees, 
in the midst of a neatly kept yard, and 

was an attractive spot. 
39 



The necessity of forming an arti- 
ficial harbor of refuge for vessels in the 
Delaware Bay, was first agitated about 
the year 1822, perhaps earlier. In 
1823, Commissioners appointed by the 
Department of War, examined the 
Bay and recommended the construc- 
tion of a Breakwater near Cape Hen- 
lopen. The necessity of some such 
place of refuge for vessels in cases 
of approaching heavy weather having 
become apparent ; the loss of shipping 
in consequence of the want of such a 
natural harbor being so serious as to 
attract the attention of the whole mer- 
cantile community. 

By statistics afterwards compiled by 
the Philadelphia Chamber of Com- 
merce, it appeared that between Jan., 
1807, and Aug., 1826, 20 ships, 57 
brigs, 48 schooners, 43 sloops, and 25 
other craft — a total of 193 vessels — 
had been driven on shore in the neigh- 
borhood of the Capes, blown out to 
sea, wrecked, sunk or damaged. Be- 
tween the 28th of December, 1826, 
and the 15 th of Jan., 1827 — a period of 
only 18 days — 62 vessels of all kinds, 
having cargoes valued in the aggregate 
at more than ^2,000,000 had been 
driven to sea, injured by storms and 
ice, or compelled to seek a precarious 
anchorage in the bay ; the crews being 
much injured and frost-bitten. 

I have in my possession a lithograph 
of one of the earliest plans of the 
"Delaware Breakwater," drawn by 
Lieut. Farley,* U. S. Army, no date 
given. On it the Breakwater, is 
stated as intended, 1200 yards long, and 
the ice-breaker, (which does not ac- 
complish its intended purpose,) as 500 

* John Farley, graduated at the U. S. 
Military Academy, 2d Lieut, ist Artilleiy, 
July I, 1823; 1st Lieut. Aug. ist, 1832; re- 
signed Feb. 29, 1836; Assistant on the Coast 
Survey, April i, 1837. 



300 



HISTORY OF CHESTEK. 



yards in length. The distance between 
the nearest point of the two parts of 
the work is given as 550 yards. Some 
years ago — about 1857 — when Edward 
Joy Morris, late U. S. Minister to Tur- 
key, and myself were associated in the 
practice of law, he was elected to Con- 
gress, and I prepared some evidence 
for him, showing the necessity of clos- 
ing the gap between the Breakwater 
proper and the Ice-breaker, at the re- 
(piest of John C. Leijjer, of Ridley, 
and Henry L. Powell, of Chester. 
This data Mr. Morris gave to Senator 
Pearce, of Maryland, who used it in a 
speech in the U. S. Senate on the sub- 
ject. 

Col. Kurtz in his report of Sept. 8, 
1 87 1, to the Chief Engineer, says 
among other things in regard to the 
Delaware Breakwater : 

"The completion of this harl)or, according 
to the original inojcct was reported in last 
year's annual report. This project was devised 
more than forty years ago. 

This harbor is quite too small for the ac- 
commodation of the vessels which now resort 
to it. Its position on the coast line is admira- 
ble for the use it was designed to subserve, 
that of a harbor of refuge for vessels plying 
north and south along the Atlantic sea-board. 
It is situated just half way from Sandy Hook 
Bay to the mouth of the Chesapeake, and ves- 
sels can enter it with very little deviation from 
their routes, and resume their voyages again, 
with minimum loss of time. 

I.ast year's report shows that 15,000 vessels 
were recorded as visiting this harbor. Add- 
ing those entering and leaving without Ijeing 
noted, 20,000 or 25,000 may be taken as the 
number that used the harlior during the year. 
Its present capacity is determined by the space 
that is sheltered by the Breakwater ])roper. 
This is a straight line nearly half a mile long, 
and it may l)e taken as the diameter of the 
half circle behind it, the area of which will 
represent approximately the sheltered harbor. 
Northeastwardly of the Breakwater is the Ice- 
breaker structure, a tpiarter of a mile in length, 
])ut sejwrated from the Breakwater proper by 



a gap of nearly ecjual extent, through which 
the sea rolls in during northeastwardly weather 
without hindrance. If the sea which now 
rolls through this gap were excluded, the 
diameter of the sheltered area would be about 
doubled, and that area would be increased to 
between three and four-fold its present extent. 
The three practicable methods of enlarging the 
harbor are as follows : 

' First. Fill the gap between the Breakwater 
and Ice-breaker with stone, uniting the two 
structures, and making the whole a continuous 
barrier to the sea. The first project will re- 
(juire 301,600 tons of stone, and cost $1,314,- 
200. 

Second. Prolong the Ice-breaker to the 
eastward till it laps the Breakwater sufficiently 
to exclude the sea. The second project will 
require 443,300 tons of stone, and cost $1,- 
944,950. 

Third. Construct a detached work in ad- 
vance of the gap of sufficient length to cover 
it at both ends. This will require 519,200 
tons of stone, and cost $2,278,000. 

The first method is the cheapest, but it pre- 
vents all access to the harbor by the gap, and 
requires vessels coming down the Bay, as well 
as those going up, to pass to the southern end, 
and enter between Cape Henlopen and the 
Breakwater. 

The third method allows access by the gap 
to vessels entering from either direction. 
Moreover, it interferes in the least degree 
with the currents and tides of the harbor, and 
so best avoids the risk of injuring the depth 
of water and disturbing the shore lines." 

A Board of Engineer officers con- 
stituted in Oct., 1871, to examine the 
condition of the harbor and report a 
plan to meet the growing Avants of 
maritime commerce, and a methoQ^ 
necessary to increase the area of shelter 
for vessels at the Breakwater, adopted 
the first proposition of Col. Kurtz, al- 
though he ])referred the latter. 

The Delaware Breakwater as it now 
stands, was completed in 1869, having 
been commenced in 1829. The amount 
of stone used in both structures was 
892,528 tons, and the entire cost was 
^2,123,505.33. Tlie length of the 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



301 



Breakwater proper, at the plane of high 
water, is 2,589 feet, and it rises from 
1 1.3 to 14.89 feet above this plane. 
The depth of water at low tide was then 
about 30 feet. 

The number of vessels recorded as 
having been sheltered at the Break- 
water from 1833 to 1 87 1, inclusive, is 
246,011. During 1873, it afforded re- 
fuge for 17,474 vessels, of which 192 
were ships, 844 steamers, 877 barks, 
867 brigs, 13,960 schooners and 735 
sloops. 

The Delaware Pilots recommended 
that the Breakwater be erected on 
Shears Shoal, but the Government 
officers said that in time of war, an 
enemy could come in and take pos- 
session. We had no heavy guns then. 
Had the Breakwater been built at the 
Shears, we would have had a magnifi- 
cient harbor, where the largest Ships 
in the World could have entered at 
any time. The same quantity of stone 
used on the Shears, would have made 
a Breakwater a mile long. 

XXXI. 

I HAVE the copy of a proclamation 
against allowing swine to run at large 
within the limits of Chester Borough, 
dated Jan. 7, 1832, signed " William 
Martin, Chief Burgess. ' ' To that date 
I haye found mention of the following 
persons, only, as Chief Burgess, viz. : 
Jasper Yeates, 1703; Joseph Hoskins, 
in 1758; Paul Jackson, from 1762 to 
1767, and David Cowpland, 1779. 

It is to be regretted that the old 
minute books and records of the 
Borough have been lost. I am in- 
formed none exist back of 1861, so I 
am unable to give a list of the Chief 
Burgesses and other Borough officers. 

In 1859, the Borough officers of 



Chester were: Robert Gartside, Chief 
Burgess; John Brooks, Treasurer; 
James Riddle, Town Clerk; James 
Campbell, Joseph Ladomus, James 
Bell, John Larkin, Jr., Abraham 
Blakeley, Dr. William Young, Ben- 
jamin Gartside, William Lear and Ro- 
bert R. Dutton, Town Council; Job 
Rulon, Auditor ; Jos. Taylor, yudge 
of Elections ; Amos Gartside, Inspector ; 
Isaiah H. Mirkil, Assessor ; Charles 
Williams, Constable. 

Since its incorporation as a City, 
on Feb. 14, 1866, the officers of the 
municipality have been as follows : 

Mayors. 

John Larkin, Jr., 1866101872. 

Dr. J. L. Forwood, .... 1872 to . 

City Council. 

Presidents. 

William Ward, Esq., . . . • 1866 to 1869. 

William A. Todd, .... 1869 to 1873. 

Young S. Walter, .... 1873 to . 

Members of Council. 
William Ward, Perciphor Baker, 

Wm. B. Reaney, Edmund Esrey, 

James Stephens, William Appleby, 

Samuel A. Dyer, David W. Morrison, 

Chas. F. Kenworthy, David S. Bunting, 

Ellis Smedley, James Ledward, 

William A. Todd, Jas. A. Williamson, 

John Hinkson, George Robinson, 

George Flood, Henry Hinkson, 

N. Walter Fairlamb, Gideon Speakman, 

Chas. A. Weidner, Wm. B. Broomall, 

James Scott, William Hinkson, 

Crosby P. Morton, George Weigand, 

Stephen Cloud, Jr., Fred J. Hinkson, Jr., 

Amos Gartside, Jos. R. T. Coates, 

J. Wesley Ottey, J. Frank Black, 

William C. Gray, Jonathan Kershaw, 

Dr. J. L. Forwood, George Goeltz, 

William G. Price, Charles Roberts, 

George Derbyshire, Thomas I. Leiper, 

J. Engle Hinkson, Jonathan Pennell, 

Y. S. Walter, William Armstrong, 

Jno. O. Deshong, Jr., Humphrey Fairlamb. 

Clerks. 
Henry L. Donaldson, .... 1866 to 1868. 

Dr. J. M. Allen, 1868 to 1873. 

C. H. Allen, 1873 to . 

Among the retailers of foreign mer- 
chandize returned by the Constables 
of the different townships to the Court 
at January sessions, 1833, I find the 
following in Chester, viz. ; Joshua P. 



:;02 



IIISTOIIY OF CHESTER. 



fLyre, Jesse M. Justice, John O. De- 
shong, Jonathan P. Newlin, George 
Sneath and Samuel Slawter, who were 
required to take out licenses. 

From the Upland Union of March 
15, 1833, I copy the following notice: 
" Dancing School. F. C. Labbe, 
of Philadelphia, takes the liberty of 
informing the inhabitants of the Bo- 
rough of Chester and its vicinity, that 
he contemplates opening a Dancing 
School at the house of Mr. John J. 
Thurlow, in this Borough, on the loth 
or 1 6th of May next, for the reception 
of pupils. F. C. L. begs leave to as- 
sure the public, that the strictest at- 
tention will be bestowed, as well as 
every effort within his power, which 
an experience of twenty years has 
given him, to teach those the art of 
dancing who may form his class." 

Chester at that time had a very 
pleasant circle of society. In winter 
a series of cotillon parties were given, 
in the large east room, in the second 
story, over the dining room of Mr. 
Thurlow's hotel, the " National ;" and 
sometimes select Invitation Balls were 
held in the same room, at which the 
elite of the town and county were pre- 
sent. I have the invitation printed on 
green paper, which led to my going to 
my first ball. It is as follows : "Birth 
Night Ball. The pleasure of Mr. 
and Mrs. William Martin's Company 
is requested at a ball on Wednesday, 
the 22nd day of February, inst., at 
John J. Thurlow's National Hotel, 
Chester. 

Managers. 

Levi Reynolds, Samuel Edwards, 

Caleb H. Booth, Samuel M. Leiper, 

Samuel H. Kneass, John K. Zeilin, 

Theodoric H. Porter, William A. Engle, 

Thomas M. Smith, William Gray, 

Charles D. Manley, John G. Johnson. 
Fibruary loth, 1837." 

This was an annual celebration of 



Washington's Birthday, and was con- 
tinued for many years. When first 
instituted I cannot say; but I have a 
similar invitation to the above, on 
yellow paper, for Feb. 22, 1830, for a 
ball given at the same place, addressed 
to Mrs. William Martin, and signed 
by "Robert P. Crosby, Samuel M. 
Leiper, John K. Zeilin, John L. Cros- 
by, Dr. William Gray, Archibald T. 
Dick, Wm. J. Leiper, Joseph Neide 
and Samuel Edwards, managers." 

From Gordon' s Gazetteer, 1832, p. 
103, (Sic, I extract the following. 

" Chester, Post-town, Borough and seat of 
justice of Delaware County, 121 miles N. of 
Washington City, and 96 miles S. E. of Harris- 
burg, on the river Delaware, 15 miles S. W. 
of Philadelphia. This is the most ancient 
town of Pennsylvania. There were several 
dwellings and a Quaker meeting here, before 
the grant to William Penn of 1681. It was 
then known as 'Upland;' but the name of 
Chester was substituted by the Proprietary at, 
and before the granting of the Borough char- 
ter, on the 31st of Oct., 1701. The first ad- 
venturers under Penn, landed here on the nth 
of Dec, 1 681, and were compelled to remain 
the winter, the river having been frozen over 
the night of their arrival. On the 4th of Dec, 
1682, the first Provincial Assembly was holden 
here, memorable for having enacted, in a ses- 
sion of three days, seventy laws, comprising 
an efficient code for the government of a po- 
litical society. There are still standing in this 
ancient town, some old houses, among which 
is the Church. Perhaps few places in the 
country have improved less. There is a water 
power near it, but it is not great, and the 
l)usiness of the surrounding country lies in 
Philadelphia. It may contain at present about 
134 dwellings, chiefly of stone and brick. A 
substantial and neat Court House of stone, sur- 
mounted l>y a cupola and bell, brick offices, 
and a stone prison, 5 taverns, 4 stores, an 
AtheuKum, the Delaware County Bank, a 
Church, and Quaker meeting house. A 
manufactory of straw paper has lately been 
established near the town. For the accom- 
modation of the trade of the Delaware, there 
arc s<ime ]>iers sunk in the river opposite the 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



303 



tcnvn, which have been lately repaired by the 
U. S. Population in 1830, only 848. There 
are here six practicing Attorneys and two 
Physicians." 

The Directory of 1859-60, states that 
"Chester, from its earliest settlement, 
grew at a very slow pace. Holm says 
of it in 1702: ' Macoponaca, which is 
called Chester, was a bare place, with- 
out a Fort, but there were some stone 
houses built there.' Oldmixon says of 
it in 1 70S, that it had 'One hundred 
houses. ' This would give a population 
of probably 500 persons." Acrelius, 
writing about 1754, says Chester has 
120 houses ; yet by the census of 1820, 
a population of only 657 is given it, 
and in 1850, it had increased to no 
more than 1667, making an increase of 
about 1000 persons in thirty years, 
averaging about thirty-four per annum, 
and in 142 years, but about eight per- 
sons per annum. In Hazard'' s Register, 
13 vol., 9, (1834,) it is stated that 
"Chester contains about 150 houses 
and 1000 inhabitants." 

Chester's po]nilation in 1820, was 
657; in 1830, 848. In 1840, Chester 
Borough and township had a popula- 
tion of 1790. In 1850, the Borough 
had 1667. The census of Chester for 
1859, taken expressly for the Directory, 
was, white males, 1865 ; white females, j 
1927 ; colored males, .142 ; females, 
173 — total, 4107. In i860, the records 
of the Prothonotary's office of the 
County Courts fixes the population at 
463 1 , while the U.S. census report gives 
it as: males, 2,055; females, 2,159, ^ 
total of 4,214. In 1870, the census 
gives 9,500 souls. Delaware County 
contains 113,289 acres and has a popu- 
lation of 39,451. The census of 1790, 
gives, white males of 16 yrs. and up- 
wards 2,536; females over 16 yrs., 
2,113; white males and females, in- 



cluding heads of families, 4,495 J ^^^ 
other free persons, 289; slaves, 50. 
Total, 9,483. The census of 1800 
give a total population in the county 
of 12,809. And that of 1810, of 14,- 
734. The following table is of great 
interest, as showing the increase of 
population in the County and in the 
townships, from 1820 to 1870. 

1820 1830 1840 1850 i86o 1870 

Aston .... 753 1070 1469 1558 1671 1870 

Bethel ... 324 367 386 426 511 554 

Birmingham . 515 584 605 566 621 765 

Concord . . . 1032 iod2 1357 1049 1229 1257 

Chester Boro' . 657 2481/1667 4631 9500 

Chester To wn'p 63S 672 J (.1553*2026*1468 

Darby Borot.gh) < 780 1200 

Darby fown'p J ' = \ ^^^ ^^^ 

Upper Darby . 692 1325 1489 2044 2571 3133 

Edgmont ... 640 758 713 621 647 678 

Haverford . . 786 980 1139 1401 1350 1360 

U. Chichester . 413 431 475 531 555 541 

L. Chichester ] ^^^ ,_ „, f 422 ) 

Mar.HookBor.l ^"^ ''= ''M 492/ ''' "'^ 

INIarple . . . 700 793 759 876 916 883 

Middletown . . 994 1188 1451 1972 2397 2559 

U.Providence 1 , 780 1 778 884 760 

Media Borough i ^ '^ I 285 900 1080 

N. Providence 566 747 1025 1457 1497 1480 

Newtown . . 611 667 752 824 830 760 

Radnor . . . 1059 1097 1205 1335 1230 1440 

Ridley ... 893 1058 1075 1389 1324 1140 

Springfield . . 576 700 860 1033 1109 1245 

Thornbury . . 537 610 675 873 1017 1007 

Tinicum . . . 182 166 153 178 193 147 

Upland 1345 

South Chester 1163 



14810 17361 19791 24640 30597 39451 

* Village of Upland included, which in 1850 contained 
436 inhabitants. 

The Directory of 1859 says that : — 
" Until the year 1849, hemmed in by farms, 
which the possessors did not seem willing to 
relinquish, but few improvements wei-e made 
beyond the seeming exigencies of the small 
population. Though enterprise wished for an 
outlet upon which to exercise its energies, the 
surrounding land-owners did not recognize its 
claim to a wider scope. From 1839 to 1848, 
but very few houses were erected. Towards 
the last of February of the latter year, the store 
and dwelling of Preston Eyre, comprising all 
the N. W. corner of Market Square, was 
burnt; and under the ownership of John M. 
Broomall, the site was embellished with fine 
stores, of ample dimensions. From this date 
others multiplied, and a stimulus seemed to 



304 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



have been ijiveii Id Ijiiiklinj^ ami trade. This 
was increasetl by some fortunate eirciimstances, 
the most prominent of which was the l^ringing 
into market of some of the farms that had 
been a barrier to the growtli of tliis ancient 
Borough. 

One of these farms was ]iart of tiie old 
Wade property, which with some additional 
land, comprised 64 acres along the Delaware, 
southwest of Chester Creek. Mr. Broomall's 
enterprise, in conjunction with that of John P. 
Crozer, induced the purchase of this tract in 

1849. Streets of ample width were laid out, 
and lii>eral inducements given to all who 
needed improved dwellings. By building and 
selling at cost, and in many instances ad- 
vancing to those without capital three-fourths 
of the means necessary to build a dwelling, 
these gentlemen soon dotted the new pur- 
chase over with modernized habitations. In 
1855 Mr. Broomall bought out the interest of 
Mr. Crozer, and has since pursued the same 
liberal policy to those in need of a home. 
Upon this purchase there have been built 
forty-four brick dwellings, two cotton facto- 
ries, five cotton and M'oolen factories, one 
bleaching and finishing factory, one dying 
factory, one oil mill, one steam saw and plan- 
ing mill, one sash and door factory, one large 
seminary, numerous shops, coal and lumber 
yards, three ship yards, and six hundred and 
ten feet of wharfing, besides other imiM'ove- 
ments. 

One year subsequent to this purchase, in 

1850, John Larkin, Jr., bought part of the 
Cochran estate, lying towards the northeastern 
part of the Borough, and with a laudable 
spirit of improvement, vigorously addressed 
himself to the task of making a new and regu- 
larly built town. His policy, likewise, has 
been of a highly liberal character, by placing 
the price of lots on a scale so low as at once 
to enable those in moderate circumstances to 
buy, and induce the capitalist to seek liberal 
investments. The old race course which was 
upon the property, where feats of agile horse- 
manship prevailed, and time, money and rough 
jests were freely expended, is now the scene 
of the steady march of improvement. The 
hum of industry is heard instead of the 
sportsman's halloo, and the racer and his 
jockey are supplanted by the steam engine 
and the swiftly revolving machinery. When 
Mr. I.arkin purchased the property it was one 



enclosure, with one small stone house and 
stable upon it. At this date it contains two 
hundred and sixty dwellings, four cotton 
mills, one machine shop and foundry, two 
brick yards, one steam sash door and furni- 
ture factory, one market house, one boarding 
school, one coach maker and smith shoj), two 
public schools, one bakery, ten stores, and an 
Odd Fellow's Hall. 

In 1852, F. & A. Wiggins, of New York, 
purchased the balance of the Cochran estate, 
lying to the north of Mr. Larkin's improve- 
ments, and having opened streets through the 
new purchase, facilities are afforded to those 
who wish to purchase eligible sites for home- 
steads. Of this the Right Reverend Alonzo 
Potter, Bishop of Pennsylvania, purchased 
seveenteen acres, upon which is the old man- 
sion house of the Cochran's, where occasional 
hours are spent from the arduous field of 
ministerial labor. 

The manufacturing interests of Chester, 
have received their greatest impulse since 
1848. In that year, Mr. James Campbell, the 
most extensive manufacturer of cottons in the 
Borough, led the way. His mill was the old 
jail at the N. W. corner of Work and Market 
streets, to which additions were built to some 
extent along the former street, to accommodate 
the various machinery. The same building 
is at present occupied by the enterprising Mr. 
Stephens, Mr. Campbell having removed to 
a more extensive site upon a fine avenue, 
Broad street, laid out by Mr. John Larkin. 
Mr. Campbell has been followed by Messrs. 
Stephens, Blakeley, Green, Eccles, Knowles, 
Leiper and Irving, and the Gartsides, all of 
whom, by their industry and perseverance, 
bid fair to make Chester eminent in the in- 
terests in which they are engaged. So far as 
we have been able to approximate the real 
condition of the cotton and woolen manufac- 
tures, they may be condensed as follows : 
Number of operatives, 5110 ; number of looms, 
518; spindles, 16,260; yards of fabric manu- 
factured per annum, 4,000,000. Investments, 
$362,000; sales per annum, $529,000. 

The oldest foundry in Delaware County is 
located in Chester, having been established 
by Mr. Kitls, in 1836; ills now owned by 
Charles A. W^eidner, and worked by W'eidner 
& Co., who are at present putting the works 
in thorough repair, preparatory to extensive 
business. In the same business, Lewis Mil- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



305 



ler, on Broad street, and John Haycock, on 
Filbert street, are building up the same in- 
terest by the conquering power of steam, and 
human skill and industry." 

The Delaware County Democrat, a 
weekly paper established in Chester, in 
1835, edited by Caleb Pierce,* publish- 
ed in its columns during its brief ex- 
istence, an article headed, ^'- First settle- 
ment of America — Original Reminis- 
cences of Chester, and of St. Pauf s Epis- 
copal Church,'''' written by the late Rev. 
Richard D. Hall, then Rector of St. 
Paul's. It is often referred to by his- 
torical writers and others, and portions 
thereof quoted, so that it has become 
a part of the history of Chester, and 
although containing may errors that I 
have before alluded to and corrected, is 
very interesting. Mr. Hall, says: 

"Although the English had very 
early made the discovery of North 
America, a considerable time elapsed 
before any advantages accrued, and to 
Sir Armigal Wadd, an Englishman of 
Yorkshire, clerk of the Council to Hen- 
ry VIII. and Edward VI., belongs the 
honor, as the first of his countrymen, 
of making discoveries in America. 

Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1584, was the 
first Englishman who attempted to 
plant a regular colony under grants in 
it. In this year he obtained a patent 
from Queen Elizabeth, for him and his 
heirs, to discover and possess forever, 
under the crown of England, all such 
countries and lands as were not then 
possessed by any Christian prince, or 
inhabited by Christian people. En- 
couraged by this grant, Raleigh and 
other partners, at divers times fitted out 

* On March 22, 1737-8, the Council order- 
ed Caleb Pierce, Samuel Levis, Aaron James, 
Moses Key, Thomas Gilpin and Samuel Bunt- 
ing, to review a certain road in the county of 
Chester. Familiar names, these, at the pres- 
ent day. 



ships, and settled a colony at Roanor, 
in Virginia, now Roanoke, in North 
Carolina; but notwithstanding various 
attempts, they met with such discour- 
agements, that no great improvements 
were made until some time after- 
wards. 

In the year 1606 King James, with- 
out any regard to Raleigh's rights, 
granted a new patent to Virginia, in 
which was included New England, New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland ; 
from Queen Elizabeth's time to the 
time of this patent, the whole country 
bearing that name, which was given it 
by Raleigh, in honor of his virgin 
mistress, as some say ; others have it, 
that it took its rise from the country 
not being settled before. The extent 
of the land granted, was from thirty- 
four to forty-five degrees of north lati- 
tude, with all the islands lying within 
one hundred miles of the coast. By 
virtue of this patent, two distinct colo- 
nies were to be planted. The London 
Company fitted out several ships with 
artificers of every kind, and all things 
requisite for a new settlement, which 
sailed for America, and planted a colo- 
ny there; but in the year 1623. there 
were so many complaints made of bad 
management, that the patent, after a 
trial in the King's Bench, was declared 
forfeited. 

In the same year the patent was grant- 
ed, the Plymouth Company also at- 
tempted to make a settlement, but with 
no great success, until about the year 
1620, when they sent a fresh recruit 
from England, under the command of 
Captain Standish, who arrived at Cape 
Cod, in the latitude of forty-two de- 
grees, and having turned the Cape, 
found a commodious harbor opposite 
the point, at the mouth of the Bay, at 
the entry of which were two islands 



oOO 



mSTOKV OF CHESTEK. 



well storked with wood. Here they 
built a town whi( h they called New 
Plymouth. 

From what appears, it is evident that 
the Colonies, New York, New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania and Maryland, were in- 
cluded in the great patent last mention- 
ed, but that becoming void, the crown 
was at liberty to re-grant the same to 
others ; but it does not appear that any 
part of tho.se Provinces was settled by 
virtue thereof; nor indeed was any dis- 
tinct discovery of them made until 
many years afterwards. New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, and other lands adjacent, 
notwithstanding the ancient right of the 
crown of England, deduced as afore- 
said, had two pretenders to them — the 
Dutch and the Swedes. The claim 
the former set up, was under color of 
a discovery made in the year 1509, by 
Henry Hudson, an Englishman, com- 
mander of a ship called the Half Moon, 
fitted out from Holland by the East In- 
dia Company, to discover by a North- 
west passage, a nearer way to China. In 
this voyage, he sailed up to the i)lace 
now New York, and up the river from 
him called Hudson's river. Returning 
some time after to Amsterdam, the 
Dutch pretended to have purchased the 
chart he made of the American coast ; 
and having obtained a patent from the 
State in 1614, to tradetoNew England, 
they settled New York, which they 
called New Netherlands, and kept pos- 
session until Sir Sam. Argole, Gover- 
nor of Virginia, disputed their title, 
alleging that the country having been 
discovered by an Englishman, in right 
of his master, he could not suffer it to 
be alienated from the crown, without 
the King's consent. He therefore com- 
pelled the Dutch colony to submit to 
him, and to hold it under the English. 
Some time after, a new Governor 



coming from Amsterdam, they not only 
neglected to pay their usual acknowl- 
edgment to tlie Governor of Virginia; 
but in the year 1623, they fortified their 
colony by building several forts; one 
on the Delaware, ( by them called South 
river,) near Gloucester in New Jersey, 
which they named Nassau; a second 
on Hudson's, (the North River,) in the 
Province of New York, which they 
named Fort Orange, now Albany; 
and a third on Connecticut river, (by 
them called the Fresh river,) which they 
named the House of Good Hope. 
Hudson's river lying near the sea, and 
the navigation esteemed less difficult 
than the other, their settlements were 
chiefly on both sides of that river; at 
the entrance of which the town by them 
also called New Amsterdam, was built. 
So that by the time the Swedes came in- 
to America, which was a few years after, 
the Dutch had wholly quitted the land 
adjacent to the river Delaware. 

The proceedings of the Dutch in 
building the forts, and in a manner 
taking possession of the country, having 
been represented to King Charles the 
First, his ambassadors at the Hague, 
made such pressing instances to the 
States, that they disowned having given 
any commission for what the Dutch 
had done, and laid the blame on their 
East India Comj)any. Upon this 
King Charles gave a commission to Sir 
George Calvert, afterwards Lord Bal- 
timore, to possess and plant that part 
of America now called Maryland, (from 
his Queen Henrietta Maria,) and to Sir 
Edward Ployden to ])lant the Northern 
parts towards New England. The 
Dutch, afraid of the power of the Eng- 
lish, were willing to compound matters 
a second time, offering to leave their 
plantations in consideration of two 
tliousand five hundred jjounds sterling, 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



:;()7 



to be paid them for the charges they 
had been at. Soon after King Charles 
being involved in his troubles, was 
hindered from supporting his colonies ; 
they therefore not only fell from their 
first proposals, but as was reported, fur- 
nished the natives with arms and taught 
them the use of them, that by their as- 
sistance they might dispossess the Eng- 
lish all around them. 

We shall now turn our attention to 
the Swedes, whose first settlement in 
America, according to their own ac- 
count, was thus occasioned. In the 
reign of Gustavus Adolphus, and in 
the year 1626, an eminent merchant, 
named William Useling, gave a great 
character of this country, applauding 
it for fruitful, fertile land, abounding 
with all the necessaries of life, and used 
many inducements to persuade the 
Swedes to settle a colony here. Gus- 
tavus issued a proclamation at Stock- 
holm, exhorting his subjects to con- 
tribute to a company associated for 
the purpose aforesaid, which was called 
the West India Company, confirmed 
by that Prince. In a General Assem- 
bly, the year following, sums of money 
were raised to carry on the intended 
settlement, to which the King, Lords 
of the Council, the Chief of his Ba- 
rons, Knights, Counts, principal of- 
ficers in his army, Bishops, Clergy, 
and divers of the common people of 
Sweden, Finland and Lapland con- 
tributed ; and responsible persons were 
chosen to see what was proposed put 
in execution, consisting of an Admi- 
ral, Vice-Admiral, merchants, factors, 
commissaries, and it was concluded to 
procure as many as they thought fit, 
of those who would voluntarily ship 
themselves to America, to settle and 
cultivate a colony. } 

In 1627, the Swedes and Finns ac- \ 



cordingly came over thither. Their 
first landing was at Cape Inlopen, now 
Henlopen. The sight created a plea- 
sure, and they named it Paradise Point. 
Some time after, they purchased of 
some Indians, the land from Cape 
Inlopen to the Falls of Delaware, on 
both sides of the river, which they 
called New Swedeland Stream, and 
made presents to the Indian chiefs to 
obtain peaceful possession of the lands 
purchased. The Dutch, however, con- 
tinuing their pretensions, in 1630, one 
j David Pieterszen de Vries, their coun- 
tryman, built a fort within the Capes of 
the Delaware on the west, about two 
leagues from Cape Cornelius, at the 
place now called Lewis Town, then and 
after called by the name of Hoarkill. 

In 1 63 1, the Swedes also built a fort 
on the west side of the Delaware, to 
which they gave the name of Chris- 
teen, which was destroyed by the 
Dutch from New Amsterdam, or New 
York, in 1655; and being upon a 
water-course falling into the Delaware, 
it gave rise to the name which it bears 
to the present day, with some little 
variation, namely, — the Christiana. 
Here a small town (near the pre- 
sent venerable building called Trinity 
church, which bears date 1698, and 
was erected in the place of a log edi- 
fice of many years standing,) was laid 
out by Peter Lindstnim, their engi- 
neer, and here they first settled, but 
this settlement was afterwards demo- 
lished by the Dutch. It is a tradition 
handed down by the first Swedish set- 
tlers, that their fathers were obliged 
to keep sentinels during their public 
worship in their log church, for fear 
of an attack from the Indians. 

On the island called Tennicum, now 
the site of the Lazaretto, the Swedes 
erected another fort, which they nam- 



:5o^ 



IIISTORV OF CllESTEK. 



ed New Gottenhurg ; this fort was 
also destroyed by the Dutch from New 
Amsterdam, or New York, in 1655. 
A church was consecrated in 1646,* 
and John Printz, then (Governor, built 
a fine house, and other suitable accom- 
modations, planted an orchard, and 
called his settlement Printz's Hall. 
The principal freemen had also their 
plantations on this island. About this 
time the Swedes also built forts at 
Upland, and other places. As this 
is the first mention made of Chester, 
in any document or history extant, at 
least to our knowledge, we must take 
it for granted that in this year the pre- 
sent town of Chester was settled, and 
settled as we have already seen by the 
Swedes and Finns. On the old maps 
of Campanius, the Swedish historian, 
and Lindstrbm, among other places 
named or held by the Swedes, we find 
the present Chester, called Manaiung. 

* 111 the " History of Ne7i> Sweden,"' l)y 
Israel Acrelius, a translation of which was 
lately published by the Historical Societies of 
Pennsylvania and Delaware, there is a state- 
ment concerning the ancient bell on the old 
Swedes' church at Tinicum (Tenacon), Dela- 
ware County. The document is in the form 
of a certificate of transfer from a daughter of 
(iov. Printz, one of the early Swedisli ruler-, 
on the Delaware. It reads thus: 

"l.Ais 1)1:0, May, 24, 1673. 
I , the undersigned, Armegot Printz, acknow- 
ledge to have transferred to the congregation 
of the Adherents of the Augsburg Confession 
in this place the hell that has been on Tcnna- 
kong, that they may do therewith what pleases 
them, and promise to keep them free from all 
claims that may be made, &c., &c., &c. 

.'Vrmec.ot Printz." 

There was great complaint about this among 
the Swedish congregation of the Tenacon 
church, and they bought their bell back again 
by two years' reai)ing in harvest time. (Jov. 
Printz, who arrived there in 1643, ''"''t a 
church in 1646, which was consecrated on the 
4th of September in that year, and elsewhere 
in the history said to be the'lirst Swedes' church 
built in America. It was on this church that 
the bell was, that was sold by his daughter, 
Armegot, in 1673. 



In 1675, ^oiiie Friends settled at 
Chester, probably from the Jersey col- 
ony; and this is here noted to correct 
an- error, that they, as the companions 
of William Penn, were the first settlers 
of Chester. One of the original names 
of the town was Upland. By this 
name also, it is recognized by William 
Penn, in giving his directions for set- 
tling his colony, in 1681, and locat- 
ing a "great towne." In an account 
of Philadelphia, and the Province of 
Pennsylvania, down to the year 1696, 
Chester is mentioned as one of the four 
great market towns, and as " mightily 
enlarged in this latter improvement." 

There are several facts of interest 
connected with the ancient town of 
Chester — the foundation of the vener- 
able church edifice and congregation 
of the Episcopal Church, known by 
the name of St. Paul's — and also the 
landing of William Penn, in 1682, and 
the hospitable reception himself and 
friends received at the "Essex-house," 
then the residence of Robert Wade. 
His house, at which the scene of the 
landing is laid, stood about 200 yards 
from Chester Creek, near the margin 
of the Delaware, and on a plain of 
about 15 feet above tide water. Near 
the house, by the river side, stood 
several lofty yellow pines, two of which 
remain at the present day, and thence 
ranging down the Delaware, stood a 
large row of lofty walnut trees, of which 
none survive. 

As a striking relic of ancient times, 
the brick building is still standing, now 
in the occupancy of Samuel Long, as 
a cooper's shop, in which, it is said, 
was held the first Assembly of Penn- 
sylvania. It is a storied and a half 
structure, of moderate dimensions, 
bearing many of the features of the 
ancient architecture of this country, 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



309 



located close by the side of the creek. 
Attached, there stands a stone house 
which bears the marks of great age, said 
to have been erected in 1690, and used 
for a Friends' meeting house. It is now 
occupied by Mr. Long's family. About 
seventeen years after Penn's landing, 
in 1699, the first mill in the county 
was erected one mile from the town, 
and now owned by Richard Flower. 

The Yeates' house, now in the Lo- 
gan family, and doubtless considered 
in its time the largest and most splen- 
did, built about the year 1700, was 
made remarkable in the years 1 740-1, 
the "cold winter," for having been 
visited in the night by a large black 
bear, which came into the yard and 
quarrelled with the dog. It was killed 
next day, near the town. 

The original expectations of Ches- 
ter, at one time, were great. It was 
once thought it might grow into a 
shipping port. In an original petition 
of the inhabitants of Chester, of the 
year 1700, they pray, that 'Whereas, 
Chester is daily improving, and in time 
may be a good place, that the Queen's 
road, (the road below Chester was call- 
ed the King's road,) may be laid out 
as direct as possible from Darby to the 
bridge on Chester Creek. ' This paper 
was signed by ninety inhabitants, all 
writing good and fair. Besides this, 
Jasper Yeates, an ancestor of the pre- 
sent family in Lancaster County, and 
who married a daughter of one of the 
early settlers of Chester, James Sandi- 
lands, erected, about the year 1700, 
the present extensive building now in 
the tenure of Samuel Smith, Esq., and 
repaired and refitted completely for 
dwellings, and commonly known by 
the name of the " Granary." It was 
built as a repository for grain, and the 
basement story for an extensive biscuit 



bakery. For some time it had an ex- 
tensive business, by having much of 
the grain from the fruitful fields of 
Lancaster and Chester Counties. 

When the first colonists, who arriv- 
ed by the ship Factor in i68i, under 
Penn, were frozen up at Chester, and 
these being followed by several ships 
in the spring of 1682, before the plot 
of the city of Philadelphia was chosen 
and located, they must have given an 
air of city life to the Upland Village, 
which may have well excited an ori- 
ginal expectation and wish of locating 
here, " the city of brotherly love." It 
was all in unison with the generous 
hospitality afforded at Wade's house, 
and among all the families of Friends 
previously settled there from Jersey — 
but Chester Creek could not compete 
with the Schuylkill River, and Chester 
was rivalled by Philadelphia — 'so that 
it seemed appointed by its two rivers 
and other conveniences, for a town.' 

The concluding remarks of the au- 
thor of the Annals of PJuladelphia, to 
whom the present writer is indebted 
for much of the foregoing matter, are 
very striking : 

'At this late day, it is grateful to 
look back with 'recollected tender- 
ness,' on the state of society once pos- 
sessing Chester. My friend, Mrs. Lo- 
gan,* who once lived there, thus ex- 
pressed it to me : ' She had pleasure 
in her older age of contemplating its 
society as pictured to her by her hon- 
ored mother, a native of the place. 
Most of the inhabitants, being descen- 
dants of the English, spoke with the 
broad dialect of the North. They were 
a simple-hearted, affectionate people, 
always appearing such in the visits she 

* Relict of the late Dr. Logan, several years 
engaged in public life. Mrs. L. and the Dr. 
were lineal descendants of the Penn colonists. 



:}10 



HISTORY OK CHESTEK. 



miulc witli Ikt niothcr to that place. 
Little distinction of rank was known, 
but all were honest and kind, and all 
entitled to and received the friendly 
attentions and tenderness of their 
neighbors in cases of sickness and dis- 
tress. Scandal and detraction, usual 
village pests, were to them unknown. 
Their principles and feelings were too 
good and simple, and the state of the 
whole was at least a silver age." 



XXXII. 

From the Life of jFohii P. Crozcr, 
written by J. Wheaton Smith, D. D., 
of Philadelphia, 1868, pp. 128-9, I 
make the following extracts, premising 
that the reverend author might haVe 
made a much more interesting work 
out of his subject : 

" Upland is beautifully situated upon 
Chester Creek, about two miles from 
its entrance into the Delaware. It is 
within the limits of the ancient town 
of Chester. Chester was settled by 
the Swedes in 1643, and has the dis- 
tinction of being the oldest town in 
the State of Pennsylvania. English 
settlers had found their way among the 
Swedes before the arrival of William 
Penn, and landings by the English 
had also been effected on the Dela- 
ware, above and below the original 
site of Chester. Indeed as early as 
1640, Puritans from Connecticut, de- 
sirous ' of planting Churches of a God- 
ly sort,' and to trade and traffic with 
the Indians along the Delaware Bay,' 
made a purchase of land for ;,^30 ster- 
ling, transported thither about fifty 
families, and erected trading houses. 
This curious connection between piety 
and trade, illustrates a trait not yet 
wholly eradicated from Connecticut 
( haracter. It is much in the vein of 



a letter to Secretary Wallingford, from 
the good old navigator, Capt. Davis, 
who, with a simplicity that is quite re- 
freshing, says : ' If these people (the 
Indians of America) were once brought 
over to Christian faith, they might soon 
be brought to relish a more civilized 
kind of life, and be thereby induced 
to take off great quantities of our coarser 
woolen manufactures. ' It was probably 
this party of New Englanders, whose 
progress awakened the attention of 
William Kieft, the Dutch Governor 
of New Amsterdam, who, in 1642, 
fitted out two sloops to drive the En- 
glish from the mouth of the Schuyl- 
kill." 

The present Upland is near the site 
of the famous "Chester Mills," which 
were framed in England, and brought 
to this country in the "Welcome," 
and erected in 1683. Traces of the 
old mill dam are still visible, and the 
old log platform under water, still re- 
mains, or at least did some years ago, 
at the ford where the King's road to 
Philadelphia once passed the creek. 
The old dwelling of Caleb Pusey, who 
erected the mill, is still preserved on 
the estate. The old mill that was 
burned down about twelve years ago, 
was built in 1745, by Samuel Shaw. I 
remember visiting "Flower's Mills" 
when I was a lad, and being attracted 
by a curious old iron weather vane on 
the saw-mill. That relic of the olden 
time is now doing duty on the building 
of the Historical Society of Penna. , No. 
820 Spruce Street, Philadelphia. It 
had no pointer to it when I first saw 
it on the mill. Now the old tail-piece 
has become the pointer, and a large 
feather-end or tail-piece has been add- 
ed, and the whole gilded, and our 
old country friend is no longer to be 
recognized. The change is as great 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



311 



as when the country lad becomes a city 
dandy, and my old friend Reece Wall 
Flower, would be astonished if he 
could see how the old relic he presented 
to the Society has been preserved. The 
original Vane was made of wrought 
iron, very roughly. In a frame.are the 
letters S. C. C. P., and under these a 
band, and resting on a lower band, 
the figures 1699 ; resting on a top band, 
over the above letters, are two others, 
W. P. The letters indicate the names 
of the then owners of the old mill 
— William Penn, Samuel Carpenter 
and Caleb Pusey, and the date 1699, 
of the erection of the vane. There 
were other partners it is stated, who 
agreed to erect one or more water- 
mills. Richard Townsend says, (i 
Proud, 229) : "After some time I set 
up a mill on Chester Creek, which I 
brought ready framed from London, 
which served for grinding of corn and 
sawing of boards, and was of great use 
to us." 

In Day s Hisiorical Collections, \'&\t^, 
303, and Watson' s Annals, i vol., 128, 
the old dwelling with a hipped roof 
addition added by Samuel Shaw% is 
spoken of (a picture of it given,) as 
the residence of Richard Townsend. 
Dr. Smith, 147, says, Townsend was 
only one of the partners ; the others 
were, Philip Ford, John Bellars, David 
Worley, Daniel Quare, John Barker, 
John Bickley and Thomas Burberry. 
These parties agreed that Caleb Pusey 
should be the Agent and Manager. 
Warrants for two parcels of land, one 
on each side of Chester Creek, were 
surveyed for the use of the mills, each 
containing twenty acres. Upon this 
land Caleb Pusey erected the mills 
above spoken of, by order of the Pro- 
prietary and his partners. Samuel 
Carpenter was not one of the original 



partners. The circumstances of his 
ownership are set forth in Dr. Smith's 
History of the County, pp. 563-4, and 
are thus explained by Henry G. Ash- 
mead, Esq., of Chester, who says: — 
"I have in my possession a deed, bear- 
ing date Dec. 19, 1705, which sets 
forth, Samuel Carpenter, a merchant, 
of Philadelphia, by this instrument 
conveys his interest in the Chester 
Mills to Caleb Pusey. 

This old deed relates that William 
Penn, Proprietary and Governor of 
the said Province, together with Philip 
Ford, John Bellars, Daniel Worley, 
Daniel Quare, John Barker, Richard 
Townsend, John Bickley, Thomas 
Burberry and Caleb Pusey, ' Did ver- 
bally agree upon a Co-partnership, in 
one or more Water Mills by them in- 
tended to be built and Erected in the 
said Province ; and in Geer, Utensills 
and Implements proper for such an 
undertaking and in such Lands, Build- 
ings and Conveniences as might be 
necessary to accomplish the same.' 
The property was divided into shares, 
and each party received that propor- 
tion of shares that his interest entitled 
him to, and Caleb Pusey was appoint- 
ed agent and manager of the ' said 
joint concern.' In 1683, Caleb Pu- 
sey, ' with the advice of the s* Pro- 
prietary and such others of the said 
Partners as then were in the Province,' 
erected ' a corn-mill ' upon Chester 
Creek, ' near his new dwelling house. 
Which Mill, with the Dam belonging 
to it, were soon Carried away by a 
flood. And the said Caleb Pusey after- 
wards by the advice of the said Pro- 
prietary and y'' other partner, that was 
here, Did upon y* said Joynt Account 
Build another Corn Mill and a Saw 
Mill upon the part of the said Twenty 
acres of Land, and Made a Dam over 



312 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



the said Creek, a little above where 
the first Mill stood. But the floods 
carried away that Dam, whereupon the 
said Partners then present, Consider- 
ing the Violence of the said Creek in 
Times of Land Floods, found it most 
advissable to Take the Water out of 
the Creek about a Mile above the said 
Mill, and for that purpose the said 
Caleb Pusey, purchased of one Thomas 
Breassey a slip of land of about four 
perches in bredth adjoining upon y* 
said creek containing about Two Acres 
where he Digged and made a mill-race 
or Water Course down to the s*^ mill.' 
The charge of making this mill-race, 
and the necessary repairs to the mill 
building, absorbed all the earnings of 
the mill, and Caleb Pusey borrowed 
from time to time, money from Robert 
Turner to pay for the improvements. 
All the partners but Penn and Pusey — 
Richard Townsend had transferred his 
interest before that to Pusey — refused 
to pay the amount assessed to each 
share, and were thereupon sued by 
Turner for ^390 8^. id. half-penny. 
Judgment was entered in his favor on 
the 14th of June, 1692, and the Cor- 
oner, Jacob Simcock, — Pusey was at 
that time Sheriff of the county, and 
interested in the suit, — instructed to 
collect that amount by sale of the pro- 
perty. Twelve men, summoned for 
that purpose, assessed the property at 
^S^o. It was then offered at public 
sale, but ' found no buyers,' where- 
upon, on the 13th day of September, 
1692, 'f»suant to the Laws of this 
Provence in such case provided,' the 
Coroner sold the interests of the de- 
linquent parties to Robert Turner, at 
the appraisement ; and he the same 
day transferred the property to Sam- 
uel Carpenter, who, until the date of 
this flced, thirteen vears afterwards, 



acted as a partner with Penn and Pusey. 

It is an interesting fact, not men- 
tioned in the old deed, that William 
Penn was present and saw the first log 
laid in the first dam, that was swept 
away by the flood. 

The old deed is written on two sheets 
of parchment, fastened together at the 
bottom by catgut, so that they fold 
one into the other. In the center of 
this lap at the bottom, a tongue or tag 
of parchment has been inserted through 
both sheets, and then sewed down. On 
the lap at the bottom of the deed is 
the signature, in a bold round hand, 
' Sam : Carpenter. ' The letters ' ter,' 
are made to run over on the tag or 
tongue. Below the signature, on the 
tag, is Carpenter's seal. It looks as 
though it was an impression made by 
a ring, and shows a heart pierced di- 
agonally by two arrows. Carpenter 
at that time was a single man, as he 
alone is mentioned as grantor. It is 
witnessed by Robert Burrow, Thomas 
England and David Lloyd. The ac- 
knowledgment was made before Jasper 
Yeates, and is certified as being re- 
corded Feb. 4, 1 706, by Peter Evans, 
Recorder. The seal of Justice Yeates 
is so defaced that I cannot decipher it. 
That of the Recorder bears a shield, 
divided transversely by a broad bar. 
The figure in the upper divisions I 
cannot make out; that in the lower is 
a partly opened scroll, rolled at each 
end. Circling the seal is 'Chester 
Covnty. Inrolmt. Office.' 

It will be noticed, that this old deed 
uses the words, 'Said joint concern.' 
Recently the London publication, iV^^/^j- 
and Queries, stated that 'concern,' 
when applied to a business, or used 
with a like meaning, was an American- 
ism. Yet this old indenture, over 
171 years of age, shows that the term, 



HISTORY OF GUESTEK. 



313 



as we now apply it was in common use 
then, and that too among educated 
people who had but recently come 
from England. Like many other so- 
called Americanisms, the origin of 
' concern' might, without much diffi- 
culty, be traced back to the mother 
country." 

The '^ Fenn Papers,'' consisting of 
original letters, MSS., documents, 
charters, grants, printed papers, rare 
books and pamphlets, relating to Wil- 
liam Penn, the early history of Pennsyl- 
vania and of this country, passed into 
the hands of a dependent or relative of 
the Penn family, after the death of 
Thomas Gordon Penn, in 1869, the 
last surviving descendant of the name, 
who sold these invaluable papers to a 
rag-dealer in London, for a mere trifle. 
He, discovering their value, sold them 
to Edward G. Allen, a dealer in old 
manuscripts, I believe, who sold them, 
in 1873, to the Historical Society of 
Pennsylvania, for about $4000. Their 
historical value cannot be estimated, 
but some idea may be formed of the 
quantity when it is known, that when 
arranged, it is expected they will make 
over 100 volumes of matter. 

The following "History of Chester, 
Fa., by the Hon. John M. Broomall," 
is taken from tht Delaware Fiver and 
West Jersey Failroad Commercial Di- 
rectory, for 1872, pp. 93, 94, 95, 96, 
and is in these words : 

" The cily of Chester, is situated on the 
west bank of the Delaware River, below Phil- 
adelphia. Its distance from Market Street 
wharf, measured on the river, is about twenty 
miles, while that from Market Street bridge, 
on the Schuylkill, by the Philadelphia and 
Baltimore post-road, is but thirteen. This 
difference is mainly owing to the great l)end 
in the Delaware, about the mouth of the 
Schuylkill, known as the Horse-shoe. 

The line of highland on which the higher 



portion of West Philadelphia is located, re- 
cedes from the shore line, and running nearly 
straight along the island limits of the Tinicum 
meadows, approaches the river about a mile 
above Chester. At this point the meadow 
land narrows to a mere strip, and gradually 
disappears altogether on the approach to the 
town. The site of Chester is as high above 
tide-water as that of West Philadelphia. 

While Chester is twenty miles nearer the 
Capes by water than Philadelphia, the dis- 
tance between the limits of the two cities by 
land, is but about eight miles, and the actual 
distance between the built-up portions of each 
is rapidly diminishing. The two cities will be 
united along the highlands long before any 
great improvement will be made along the 
river line between them. 

Chester is the oldest town in Pennsylvania. 
The titles of its town lots extend back through 
the ownership of Europeans and their descend- 
ants to 1645. A village of considerable size 
existed there in 1682, at the time of the found- 
ing of Philadelphia, containing a market house, 
court house, schools, places of public worship, 
a flour mill and several taverns. It is well 
known that Penn intended locating his city 
there, but was prevented mainly by the fear 
that it might prove to be within the limits 
of Lord Baltimore's domain. There is good 
reason to suppose that this fear was not with- 
out foundation, and more than that, that the 
removal to the mouth of the .Schuylkill did 
not mend the matter. It is shrewdly suspect- 
ed that nothing but Penn's influence at Court 
saved him from holding his grant under Lord 
Baltimore, if at all, up to a line considerably 
north of Philadelphia. 

Chester was the seat of Government cjf the 
Colony of Pennsylvania for several years. It 
continued to be the seat of justice of Chester 
County until 1788, when West' Chester de- 
prived it of that honor. This event was im- 
mediately followed by a division of the county, 
when Chester became the seat of justice of the 
new county of Delaware, and remained so until 
1850. At that period, the courts and records 
were removed to Media, a point five miles in- 
land, about the middle of the county, the pre- 
sent seat of justice. 

After the establishment of Philadelphia, 
Chester gradually declined in importance, if 
not in population and extent. For a century 
and a half nothing but its Court house distin- 



:U4 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



guished il from Mucus Hook, its neighboring 
fishin;T town. Long since the comm encement 
of the present century, its inhabitants consisted 
of throe or four tavern iceepers, a doctor, a 
few dozen fishermen, two country storekeepers 
and a custom house-oflicer, whose arduous 
duties consisted of signing a receipt for his 
small salary four times a year. 

About 1840, however, a spirit of innovation 
began to exhibit itself, a little to the alarm and 
discomfort of the old inhabitants. Delaware 
County had always contained much of the 
elements of progress, and the county town 
could not always escape the contamination. 
Manufactures of paper, cottons, woolens, iron, 
&c., had sprung up in various parts of the 
county, and it began to be perceived that steam 
upon tidewater is better than water power a 
few miles off. The advantages of Chester as 
a seat for manufacturing establishments soon 
became manifest, and from that lime onward, 
its progress in material wealth and population 
has surprised even the most far-seeing. 

In 1840, the popahtion was 700 ; in 1 850, 
1600; in 1860,6400; and in 1870, including 
the suburbs, about 14,000. Not many towns 
in Pennsylvania, or anywhere east of it, can 
show a corresponding increase. With equal 
advantages of location, Marcus Hook and New 
Castle have remained nearly stationary during 
that period of thirty years. j. 

In 1827, the first stationary steam engine was 
started in Chester, and its advent produced 
more sensation among the simple villagers 
than did the downfall of the French monar 
chy. Now the number in operation is about 
sixty. These engines operate 28 cotton and 
woolen mills, 8 machine shops, and some 18 
or 2<3 other manufacturing establishments. 

The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Balti- 
more Railroad passes through the town with 
23 trains daily, including six from the Ralti- 
more Central road, and the new route along 
the highlands, which will soon be opened, 
will render Chester accessible to Philadelphia 
every half hour in llie day without crossing 
the Schuylkill and Tinicum meadows, which 
constitutes so uninviting a feature of the pre- 
sent road, with its ditches, swamps and draw- 
bridges. This new route is already attracting 
the attention it deserves, pa.ssing as it does, 
through a country beautifully midulating and 
rich as a garden, with streams of pure spring 
water coursing every ravine. Already streets 



are being laid out and buildings erected upon 
them, promising a continuous town, so that 
the southern traveller, in a few years, w ill not 
suppose he is outside of Philadel])hia, until he 
reaches the Delaware State line. 

The southern terminus of the Chester Creek 
Railroad, is at Chester. This road is leased 
and operated by the Haltiniore Central Rail- 
road Company, and it forms the connecting 
link between the two Baltimore and Phila- 
delphia railroads. Connecting at Lenni with 
the Westchester railroad, and at Chadd's Ford 
with the Wilmington and Reading Railroad, 
the Baltimore Central and Chester Creek roads 
open out to Chester the rich agricultural and 
mining districts of Chester County and the en- 
tire country traversed by those roads. 

The Media and Chester Narrow Gauge Rail- 
road Company has been chartered and organ- 
ized ; and its road is now being located along 
the valley of Ridley Creek. This, when com- 
pleted, will bring Chester within twenty min- 
utes ride of the seat of justice. The scenery 
along the route of this road is not excelled 
anywhere within the same distance of Phila- 
del]5hia. In places it approaches the moun- 
tainous, and all along the valley are hill sides 
teeming with agricultural wealth, and manu- 
facturing villages swarming with a busy pop- 
ulation. It is in contemplation to construct 
an 80 feet carriage-way along the bed of the 
railroad, so as to afford the citizens of Chester 
an opportunity to reside upon the highlands 
of the county and be within a few minutes 
ride of their places of business. 

With all the railroad, facilities, and with a 
river not obstructed by ice up to that point 
once in twenty years, few localities offer the 
inducements to manufacturers which Chester 
does : and this, with the energy and enterpri.se 
of those who have made it their home, is the 
sufficient explanation of the fact, that in thirty 
years the population has increased t%venty-fold. 

The width of the Delaware at Chester, is 
about a mile and a half. The channel is near 
the town, and is deep and wide enough for 
vessels of ordinary draft of water to tack and 
manoeuvre in, so as to avoid the necessity of 
being towed. Few vessels that enter the port 
of Philadelphia recpiire towing, except from 
Chester upwards. In 1856 and 1857, two 
winters in succession, the river was frozen 
over at Chester so as to bear loaded wagons, 
and for a few weeks, much hauling of wood 



HISTORY UF CHESTER. 



815 



nnd other commodities was done to and from 
the ojjposite shore. No such occurrence had 
taken place for years before, nor has the 
river there been frozen over since. On both 
those occasions, it was open opposite the pre- 
sent extension of the town southward, and at 
that point and below, the river has probably 
never been fast during the memory of the oldest 
inhabitant. 

Among the public institutions of the town, 
may he mentioned the Delaware County Na- 
tional Bank, founded as a State Bank in i8i6, 
and for many years so ably conducted as to 
merit and enjoy a high degree of juiblic con- 
fidence. It became a national bank in 1865, 
with a capital of three hundred thousand dol- 
lars. The First National Bank of Chester, 
established in 1865, with a capital of one hun- 
dred thousand dollars. This institution ranks 
among the best in the country. The Chester 
Gas Company, founded about 1856, well man- 
aged and exceedingly profitable to the stock- 
holders. The South Ward Water Works, 
supplying a large portion of the city with water 
from the Delaware. The Crozer Theological 
Institute, a college founded. by the late John 
P. Crozer, and managed by the religious de- 
nomination of Baptists. The Chester Militaiy 
Academy, under the charge of Col. Theodore 
Hyatt, as principal. Thirteen public schools 
and five private academies. 

There are also 19 places of public worship ; 
2 Episcopal, 6 Methodist, 3 Baptist, 2 Presby- 
terian, I Catholic, and 2 of the demomination 
of Friends. 

There are also 7 hotels, and more drinking 
houses than the Court of Quarter Sessions of 
the county is probably aware of. 

There are 5 shipyards in Chester, one of 
which, then operated by Messrs. Reany, Son 
& Archibold, was extensively engaged during 
the recent war, in making iron vessels of war 
for the Government. Though the business of 
ship-building has been unprosperous in this 
country for the past few years, yet the facilities 
afforded at Chester have been such that these 
yards continue in operation, and are now do- 
ing a good paying business. These facilities 
consist of cheapness of the river front for loca- 
tions, as well as of living for the workmen, 
and the opportunity of obtaining materials by 
water and by railroad at less cost than in the 
larger cities. 

The town was erected into a Borough by 



Penn's government in 1682. Its charter was 
reconstructed and amended on several occa- 
sions by the State Legislature, and in 1866, it 
was constituted a city. The old town occu- 
pied a part of what is now the Middle Ward. 
The North Ward was laid out and to a large 
extent built up liy John Larkin, Jr., the first 
and present Mayor of the city, having been 
commenced in 1850. John P. Crozer and 
John M. Broomall laid out and began to build 
up the South Ward, in the same year. The 
three wards constitute the city proper. But 
the town has extended beyond the city limits 
in almost all directions. One of these exten- 
sions is the Borough of Upland, founded by 
John P. Crozer, about 1847, and still owned 
almost wholly by his heirs. It contains two 
large cotton mills, a church, several school 
buildings, and the theological college already 
mentioned. Another is the Borough of South 
Chester, laid out by John M. Broomall and 
William Ward, in 1863. This contains two 
shipyards, a brass foundry and machine shop, 
foin- cotton and woolen factories, three places 
of worship, and three school houses. The 
other extensions are embraced within the 
township of Chester, and contain factories 
and schools, and other establishments. 

In giving the population and business of 
Chester, these extensions are necessarily in- 
cluded. Except in the case of Upland, they 
are mere extensions of the same streets, with 
nothing to mark where the city proper ends, 
and doubtless liefore long, they will be in- 
corporated with the City, under the same gov- 
ernment. 

Among the curiosities of Chester and its 
• vicinity, are several old buildings erected dur- 
ing the early importance of the place, and 
still in good condition. Among these may 
be mentioned the dwelling house of David 
Lloyd, an important personage in the early 
colonial history. It was built by Lloyd, in 
1721, and is beautifully located on the banks 
of the Delaware. Though suffered to fall 
into decay within a few years, it still bears 
marks of its ancient grandeur. Many years 
ago, it became the property of the late Com- 
modore David Porter, and it is still held by 
his heirs. The Logan house, built by Jasper 
Yates, about 1700, is still standing, though 
altered into two dwellings, and all marks of 
its antiquity effaced. This building is situated 
upon Filbert street. Until desecrated by mod- 



:UG 



ISTORY OF CIIKSTEK. 



cni utilitarian liaiuls it was a grand specimen 
of the mansion house architecture of that day. 

The City llali, once the Court house of 
Chester County, and afterwards of Delaware, 
wasliuilt in 1724; it is still one of the best huild- 
in.!,'s of the place, and will outlast most of 
those now in process of erection, if spared by 
Vandal hands. The residence of Caleb Pusey, 
still standing on the banks of Chester Creek, 
in Upland, is older than any of these. It was 
built about 1683. It is a one-story building 
with a Mansard roof, better proportioned than 
roofs of that kind now being constructed. It 
was, however, the style of that day, and the 
change may justify the charge made against 
our age, that we take up what was really good 
of centuries ago and spoil it. This building 
has been carefully preserved in its original 
style by the late John P. Crozer and his heirs, 
who still own it. 

IJut the present work has more to do with 
the town of our day than the past, and we 
conclude our observations of both by the re- 
mark, that from present appearances, Ijefore 
many years have passed by, Chester will be in 
fact, if not in name, a p.irt of the city of Phila- 
delphia." 

The Directory toiitaining the above 
account, was published by my old 
friend William Moran, whom I knew 
well formerly when I took part in po- 
litics, and was a member of the Whig 
Executive Committee of Philadelphia, 
previous to General Taylor's election 
as President. 



XXXIII. 

Between the property of the late 
John Cochran, deceased, and the lands 
late of Spencer Mcllvain, now of Wil- 
liam Simpson, on Ridley Creek, there 
is a small run, now almost dry, called 
" Munday's Run," perhaps after Henry 
Munday, who married Prudence, the 
widow of James Sandilands, the young- 
er. When I was quite young, my nurse, 
Hannah Allen, a very pretty, sweet 
and intelligent girl, who afterwards 



married Robert Blythe, and curious to 
relate, went to live in the little frame 
house still standing on the left hand 
side of the old Post road, now Morton 
Avenue, just east of Munday's Run, 
used to repeat very freqtiently some 
lines, about an occurrence that hap- 
pened in the latter part of the last 
century, beginning as follows : 

" At Munday's Run near Chester town. 
Old Siddons knocked the pcdler down. 
And robiied him of his golden store. 
And left him weltering in his gore," &c. 

1 have forgotten the rest, but the 
above tells the whole story. It was a 
delectable piece of home-made poetry, 
describing how Siddons did it — was 
caught — taken to Chester and tried. 
He was acquitted, however, and died 
in 1824, aged about 76 years. His 
remains lie buried in the old grave 
yard of St. Paul's, near the street, 
opposite the entrance door of the pre- 
sent church across the street. It was 
said that the pedler's ghost was often 
seen in the dusk of early twilight walk- 
ing about the " widow Mcllvain's 
meadow;" and I have not forgotten 
how I used to run, as fast as my little 
legs could carry me, along the high- 
road, and over the little bridge across 
Munday's Run, in the glooiTi of the 
evening, when going home from school 
at Chester to my, father's house, Crosby 
place ; or how I used to look at the 
meadow, with mingled feelings of cu- 
riosity and dread, to see whether I 
could discover Siddons digging up the 
pedler's pack, from the .spot where 
he had hid it after his murderous deed. 
This was his spirit's regular nightly 
job ; a kind of a purgatorial punish- 
ment inflicted after death. Once or 
twice I thought I saw him at his even- 
ing task ; but as I had staid after 
school to play, and forgotten all about 



HISTORY OF CHESTP]R. 



317 



the ghost until it was nearly dark, it 
ma}^ have been a cow or a horse I saw ; 
however, I \yas just as much scared as 
if it had been the ghost of the pedler 
or the spirit of Siddons ; the effect was 
the same. Even now the recollection 
of what I suffered in crossing Mun- 
day's Run late in the evenings, sends 
a cold shiver down my back. 

The " Widow Mcllvain," mention- 
ed above, was Elizabeth, dau. of John 
and Elizabeth Spencer, h. 9 mo. 30, 
1770, d. 3 mo. 12, 1842. She m. 
II mo. I, 1792, Jeremiah, son of 
John Mcllvain and Lydia Barnard, 
his second wife ; he was b. 6 mo. 29, 
1767; d. 2 mo. 19, 1827. They had 
issue: Sarah, /;. 10 mo. 27, 1793, and 
John, both died in infancy. Lydia, 
b. 10 mo. 4, 1795, m. Edward H. Bon- 
sall, conveyancer, of Philadelphia, and 
d. in 1854, leaving Spencer, in. to Ellen 
C. Martin, and have one son, William 
Martin Bonsall, (see Martin family.) 
Jeremiah, m. to Margaret Hutcliinson, 
dau. of Robert and Elizabeth, of Phila- 
delphia, and had Robert, Edward, 
Henry and Lydia, c/^rV/, ?i\\di Joseph, 
City Surveyor of Denver, Colorado, who 
died in 1876, unmarried. Elizabeth 
;//. Jacob Hewes, of Ridley. Spencer 
Mcllvain, b. 3 mo. 27, 1803, ;//. Sarah 
L. Crosby, a sweet and lovely woman, 
{Ante, 211 & 212.) John Spencer^ 
b. 9 mo. 24, 1805, m. Susan Morton, 
who was b. April 27, 1809. {Ante^ 
144.) Jeremiah, /;. 2 mo. i, 1808, 
m. Ann Crosby Morton. {Ante, 143.) 
Ann Mcllvain ;//. Levis Miller, of 
Delaware County, and had issue : Liz- 
zie, Mary, Edgav, George, Levis, 
dec' d, Annie and Ellen, that I can re- 
call, and Samuel Mcllvain, b. 12 mo. 
6, 1813, d. 1834, unmarried. 

The Mcllvain's, of Delaware Co., are 
descendants of James and Jane Mc- 



llvain, of Ridley, who came to Ameri- 
ca, from County Antrim, Ireland, in 
1740, and settled on Crum Creek, in 
Chester, now Delaware Co.* The old 
family mansion, a fine large stone 
structure is still standing, in excellent 
repair, a short distance back or north 
of the village of Ridley, now Leiper- 
ville, and to the east of the creek and 
the Leiper canal. 

The maiden name of Jane Mcllvain 
is supposed to have been Heaney. 
Hugh Heaney, of East Fallowfield, 
Chester County, in his will, dated 
Jan'y 11, 1764, and proven Mar. 30, 
1767, mentions his wife Margaret, son 
Hugh, and daughters Isabella Cum- 
mings, Jane Mcllvaine and Margaret 
Heaney. He was a resident of the 
township in 1754. 

John Mcllvain, a son of James and 
Jane, married Mary Roman who was 
his first wife, and their son, Isaac Mc- 
llvain, married Susan Crossley, (not 
Crosby, as stated on p. 209, so says 
Ann Mcllvain, who luarried Levis 
Miller,) by whom he had two children, 
one of whom was called Thomas. 

I cut from an old number of the 
Delaware County Republican, the fol- 
lowing interesting account of the death 
of two old horses: "A horse owned 
by Robert Playford, who resides near 
Media, died recently, aged t^t^ years 
and 10 months. 'Jack' was raised 
by Mr. Playford, and served the family 
faithfully for the long period above 
stated. A sorrel mare, named ' Peg,' 

* The Mcllvain's are not, however, Ii'ish, 
but Scotch. This year, (1874,) Charles Mc- 
llvain, of Philadelphia, visited the ancient 
castle and estates of the family in Scotland, 
and met many of the name. He was told that 
some of the clan went to Ireland, but only re- 
mained there a year or so. A portion of the 
old estate in Scotland is without an owner. 
Castle Mcllvain is occupied by the Mcllvain's 
yet, and they received their American relative 
with great cordiality. 



318 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



owned by Spencer Mcllvain, of this 
Borough, died about the same time at 
the advanced age of 36 years. She 
was purchased by Mr. Mcllvain at the 
age of 6 years, and has been in his 
possession ever since. These animals 
were, perhaps, the oldest in the county, 
and having been well used, their lives 
were greatly prolonged. It is seldom, 
however, a horse lives beyond 30 years. 
Mr. Percival gives an account of a 
barge-horse that died in his sixty- 
second year ; and Mr. Youatt quotes 
the record of another horse that re- 
ceived a ball in his neck at the battle 
of Preston, in 1715, and which was 
extracted at his death in 1758. These 
are rare instances of old age in the 
horse, and have been deemed worthy 
of especial record." 

When I was a l)oy, all country 
residences had near the front of the 
house a "horse block," or "mounting 
block ;" a set of steps, generally made 
of stone, raised three or four steps 
above the ground for the convenience 
of the family in mounting and dis- 
mounting from their horses, with a 
l)ost alongside of the block to take 
hold of and to assist them, and to 
hitch their horses to. Riding on 
horseback by women was much more 
common a few years ago than now. 

It is interesting to recall anything 
relating to old times in the county; 
and the manners and customs of the 
people. I noticed it stated recently, 
that John Pyle, of Thornbury Town- 
ship, is the owner of .some table knives 
and forks, whose age is over a century 
and a half, (1873) — they have been in 
the family that time. The knives are 
curved like a cimeter, and a knife and 
fork weigh a pound, which shows that 
handling a knife and fork with our 
ancestors was a weighty operation. In 



old wills, the gift of a pewter dish was 
deemed worthy of mention. They 
were in common use about 30 years 
ago, as also sets of Britannia ware, and 
may be yet, in the country. At the 
time of the settlement of this country 
by the English, wooden dishes and 
spoons were used. 

The comforts of living in the coun- 
try and our country towns, and even 
cities, is very different from what it 
was even less than one hundred years 
ago. Then the people had no illumi- 
nating gas in the towns, no oil or cam- 
phene in the country, nothing but the 
light of pine knots, the fire or tallow 
candles after dark ; people went to bed 
early, in cold rooms; no fires were kept 
in country houses except in the large 
open fire places in the kitchen, where 
the chimney was so large and open, 
you could see the stars when you look- 
ed up them, and where the rain and 
snow at times fell down on the fire; 
except, perhaps, in very wealthy famil- 
ies, who had a fire in the sitting or 
dining rooms, all the rest of the house 
was, in winter, as cold as out of doors. 
No carpets were on the floors, except, 
perhaps in the best room. No pumps 
to draw water from ; the drinking wa- 
ter was carried from the nearest spring, 
that for washing from the nearest creek, 
or drawn from a well by a sweep or 
pole, and the "old oaken bucket." 
All cooking was done in the open fire 
places; for baking, each house had, 
beside the fire place, an o\en built, 
generally of brick. How dreary it 
was to get up before light on a win- 
ter's morningand find the fire had gone 
entirely out, and then struggle over 
the flint, steel and tinder, to try and 
get a light, and often not succeed 
until every finger was numb with cold 
and bruised with blows from the flint. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



319 



There were no friction matches then. 
When I was a boy, comforts had begun 
to come to country life. We had in 
tiie kitchen an immense, ten-plate 
iron stove ; in the parlor and in the 
sitting room one of Franklin's iron 
open fire places, with brass headed 
Andirons, shovel and tongs ; now all 
the fashion again. Wood was plenty, 
and the fires were large ; we roasted in 
front, when sitting before a fire, while 
cold chills crept down the back. No 
wonder men stood with their backs 
to the fire in those days. We had 
no heaters to warm the houses. No 
contrivances were arranged for saving 
the heat, consequently most of it es- 
caped up the chimneys. The Ger- 
mans, with their large tiled stoves, 
standing in the middle of the room, 
were far in advance of us. 

When I was quite young, the old 
frame house east of Robert Blythe's resi- 
dence, spoken of as at Munday's Run, 
was occupied by Thomas and Esther 
Ottey, and a large family of children. 
I can recall Hetty, Hannah, Amanda, 
John, Thomas, Sarah and Maria Ottey ; 
after the death of her husband, Mrs. 
Ottey became dairy-woman for my 
step-grandfather, John F. Hill, and 
lived in the large stone spring-house 
near his residence in Ridley, distin- 
guished by a large pine tree, which grew 
on the Springfield road, now called 
Swarthmore Avenue, running through 
Ridley Park. One of Mrs. Ottey' s 
daughters, Hetty, married John De 
Camp, who was then in the employ of 
Mr. Hill; another, Hannah, married 
James Burke, of Ridley ; and a third, 
Amanda, married Peter Stewart, who 
leased the old West farm, at Westdale, 
the birth-place of the celebrated painter 
Benjamin West. Sarah and Maria are 
also married and reside in Philadel- 



phia, I believe, but I do not know 
their husbands' names. The name of 
Ottey is an old Delaware County one. 
Old Thomas Ottey and John F. Hill, 
were both bitten by mad dogs in their 
youth, and both were subject to vio- 
lent outbursts of passion during the 
full of the moon. The two houses 
mentioned, Ottey's and Blythe's, and 
another near Chester, also frame, were 
then the only houses between the old 
school house at Chester and the houses 
at Ridley Creek bridge, that were 
situated on the post road. 

Although there are several families 
of Cochrans dwelling in Delaware and 
Chester Counties, they are not known 
to be related, even remotely, to those 
so long domiciled in and near Chester, 
and who comprise a portion of the 
descendants of Alexander Cochran, 
who came to America from Scotland 
very early in the present century. 

In Scotland, the Cochrans dwelt for 
many years on the banks of the Po- 
million, in Strathaven, Lanarkshire ; 
and an old family Bible, printed in 
Edinburgh, in 1712, informs us, that 
the father of Alexander was John Coch- 
ran, whose name has been made very 
familiar in southeastern Pennsylvania 
by its possessors in subsequent gene- 
rations. This John Cochran had nine 
children : Alexander, Helen, Eliza- 
beth, Hugh, Scotty, (girl,) John, 
Marie, Janet, and Thomas, two of 
whom, Alexander, born May 12, 1768, 
and John, born Sept. 21, 1779, sought 
homes and fortunes in the New World, 
and from thence sprung two large 
families. 

John came first ; landed in New 
York in 1801 ; and lived in Philadel- 
phia until 1835, when, lured by in- 
ducements in the southwest, he moved 
to Louisville, Kentuckv, where, bv 



820 



inSTOKV OF CHESTER. 



integrity and diligenre he acquired a 
handsome fortune, and died greatly 
respected Nov. 27, 1864, aged 84 
years. In 1810 or 11, he espoused 
Helen Prentice, daughter of Archi- 
bald Prentice, also of Lanarkshire, and 
by her had seven children : Helen, 
Jane Leiper, Mary, Margaret, John, 
Archibald P., and Gavin Hamilton, 
all born in Philadelphia, and all living 
except John and Mary. John, (third 
in this line) died in 1856, leaving an 
infimt daughter, Jessie, possessed of 
great musical talent, and at this time, 
(1874) considered the finest amateur 
pianist in Louisville. Jane L. became 
the wife of James Speed, a lawyer, of 
Kentucky, who was Attorney-General 
of the L^nited States during portions 
of the administration of Abraham Lin- 
coln and Andrew Johnson, and had 
seven children, all sons. The others, 
excepting Helen, also married and 
have had issue, all residing in Louis- 
ville. John Cochran was elected a 
member of the St. Andrew's Society, 
Philadelphia, 1813, and later of the 
Scots Thistle Society. He retained to 
the last, in a marked degree, his Scot- 
tish brogue and clannishness, and was 
interred in Cave Hill Cemetery by the 
side of his wife, who died in Phila- 
delphia, but was removed to Louis- 
ville. His descendants at this time, 
(1874) number thirty-one. 

Alexander Cochran followed his 
brother John to America a few years 
later ; sailing from Ivinick and landing 
in Philadelphia, he proceeded to Dela- 
ware Co., and, through a relationship 
with the Leiper family, settled near 
them at Avondale, in Nether Provi- 
dence Township, about 1804. With 
him came his wife {nee Sarah Morri.son) 
and four children : John, Matthew, 
Alexander, and Sarah. 'I o these were 



afterward added four others : George, 
James (second), Thomas, and Janet. 
One child, James, (first) died in Scot- 
land, and Janet died in America when 
eight years old. Alexander Cochran 
continued to live in or near Chester 
until the 3d of Feb. 1842, when he 
died at his residence on what is now 
known as Fifth street. 

He was nearly seventy-five years old, 
and his wife, who followed him to the 
grave Sept. 30, 1851, reached eighty. 
Both were zealous in religion, and 
now sleep in the old cemetery at Mid- 
dletown, within a few feet of the corner- 
stone of the church. 

The eldest of their children was the 
late well-known John Cochran, (born 
Mar. 12, 1792,) upon whose former 
farm a large portion of the present 
City of Chester stands. Mr. Cochran, 
like his father, was a farmer, and al- 
though a heavy, robust man, was ex- 
ceedingly fond of field sports, and was 
famous as a good horseman, and a 
graceful dancer. He married first, 
Elizabeth Engle, of Delaware County, 
daughter of Isaac and Abigail Engle, 
connections of the Engle and Edwards 
families of Chester, by whom he had 
two children : Sarah and Isaac En- 
gle. May 2, 1844, Sarah became the 
wife of Herman J. Lombaert, sub- 
sequently Vice President of the Penn- 
sylvania Railroad Company, and first 
President of the American Steamship 
Company, and they have issue : Charles, 
Sallie, Bessie and Emma Lombaert. 
The father of Mr. L., Charles J. Lom- 
baert, died recently in Philadelphia, 
at an extremely old age. Isaac Engle 
married Jo.sephine M., daughter of 
Mark Pennell, and resides in Chester. 

Elizabeth Engle Cochran died May 
25, 1822, and the following year Mr. 
Cochran married her sister, Abigail, 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



321 



who bore him four children : Eliza- 
beth, John, Margaret E., and one who 
died in infancy. Abigail died Jan. 
23, 1839, and her husband Oct. 31, 
1843. -^1^ were buried at Middletown. 

John Cochran, (third in this line,) 
son of John and Abigail, and one of 
the most active and influential citi- 
zens of Chester, was born Oct. 24, 1825, 
in what is now North Ward. June 6, 
1849, ^^^ married Catharine, a dau. of 
Samuel and Kitty Johnson, of Mar- 
pie Township, and by her had ten 
children : Isaac Engle, Samuel J., 
Herman Lombaert, Helen, Kate, 
Mary, Anna, John Howard, Archi- 
bald, and Meta Winifred. Of these, 
Kate and Meta died in infancy ; and 
Herman, an unusually promising lad, 
met a tragic end by being accidentally 
drowned in company with a lovely 
girl, a daughter of James Irving, of 
North Chester, while skating on the 
lake in Chester Rural Cemetery, Dec. 
II, 1869. Both of the young people 
were of the same age — the i6th year. 

Mr. Cochran was engaged in farm- 
ing in early life, and for a time lived 
near Marcus Hook. Later, he was 
associated with R. Morgan Johnson, as 
Johnson & Cochran,general merchants, 
Chester; and in 1858, established the 
first real estate and insurance agency 
in Chester. This business from in- 
significant proportions grew with the 
town, until now, under the title of 
John Cochran & Sons, it is one of the 
leading and most successful interests. 
The sons are Isaac E. and Samuel 
Johnson. The former, I. Engle Coc/i- 
ra// married June 10, 1875, Adele D., 
daughter of Lewis Ladomus, of Ches- 
ter. 

I used to be well acquainted with 
James Cochran, a brother of John, the 
elder, who was born in Nether Provi- 



dence Township, Sept. 8, 1813. He 
lived on Fourth street, and in 1841, 
(July 15,) was married by the Rev. 
Wm. Suddards, D. D. in Grace Church, 
Philadelphia, to Sarah J. Gillespie, 
eldest daughter of Thomas and Ann 
Gillespie, (nee Gamble,) and sister 
of an old friend of mine, Thomas L. 
Gillespie, of the firm of Gillespie, 
Zeller & Co., Philadelphia. This 
marriage resulted in six children : 
Henry Clay, Thos. Gillespie, Edmund 
Pennell, Mary A., Harriet Spencer, 
and James Alexander. Edmund and 
Harriet died when quite young, and 
Thomas G., a very popular and suc- 
cessful young merchant, died suddenly 
at his father's, Aug. 15, 1870, in his 
27th year. The press of the day, in 
recording his death, said: "He was 
a young man of most exemplary habits, 
of cheerful and obliging disposition, 
and open, frank, and upright in his 
intercourse with his fellow men." 

Mr. Cochran did not long survive 
his son, dying, strange to say, in al- 
most exactly the same way, Oct. 11, 
1871. He was a man of heavy build, 
great business activity, wonderful en- 
durance, and remarkably abstemious 
habits. During the famous "shower 
of meteors," in 1833, ^""^ ^^"^'^^ riding 
through a forest in Ohio, in the pur- 
suit of his vocation, which led him to 
make long journeys on horseback, be- 
fore the era of railroads, and to be 
known at every town and stopping 
place between Chester and the Ohio 
river. 

The war history of this family is 
illustrative of the dark and anxious 
days of the Rebellion, when so many 
Delaware County homes were repre- 
sented "at the front." Mr. Coch- 
ran, originally a Whig, then a Repub- 
lican, and always a strong anti-slavery 



IIISTOIIY OF CHESTER. 



partisan, was one of those devoted and 
enthusiastic Union men who could 
not control their grief when the memo- 
rable news reached Chester that the 
old flag had been fired on at Fort 
Sumter. It is related of him and his 
neighbors, the Rev. John Ruth, Mr. 
Joseph H. Hinkson and others, that they 
cried like children. Later, when in 
1863, Philadelphia was threatened, he 
abandoned his business, and, although 
then fifty years of age, shouldered a 
musket, and was conspicuous among 
the first exempt* men of Chester who 
volunteered in the 37th Regt. P. V. M., 
and marched to the Cumberland Val- 
ley, to repel the Lee invasion. His 
eldest son, Henry, had preceded him 
in the good cause, and the second, 
Thomas Gillespie,, soon followed, leav- 
ing only two infants at home. 

Henry Clay Cochrane first served as 
a Corporal of Militia in guarding the 
railroad communication between Phila- 
delphia and Baltimore. Through the 
influence of the late Hon. John Hick- 
man, Rt. Rev. iVlonzo Potter, and 
other friends, he was appointed by 
President I,incoln, a Second Lieu- 
tenant in the Marine Corps, and passed 
his entering examination Aug. 29, 
1 861. Owing to his youth, he could 
not then be commissioned, and served 
as a Master's Mate in the Navy until 
Mar. 10, 1863, when having attained 
his 20th year, he was regularly con- 
firmed by the Senate. Aug. 20, 1865, 
he was promoted to First Lieutenant. 
He served throughout the war under Ad- 
niirals Goldsborough, Dupont, Farra- 
gut, Porter, and Lee, in the North 
and South Atlantic, Gulf, and Missis- 
sippi Squadrons, receiving his "bap- 
tism of fire" at the bombardment of 

* Men over forly-five years were not linl.lc 
to conscription. 



Port Royal, S. C, Nov. 7, 1861, being 
then a division officer of the gunboat 
Pembina. He is a young man of edu- 
cation and niucli intelligence, and 
since his last cruise in the sloops-of- 
war Saranac and Jamestown, in the 
Pacific Ocean, has delivered several 
interesting lectures at Chester, and in 
New York before the American Geo- 
graphical Society, of which he is a 
Fellow. He is also a companion of 
the military order of the Loyal Legion 
of the United States, and is now on 
duty at the Naval Academy at Anna- 
polis. Thomas G., better known as 
Gillie, was also in the Navy and served 
as Captain's clerk on the U. S. steamer 
Alabama, Act. Vol. Lt. Frank Smith, 
of Delaware Co., commanding, princi- 
pally on the blockade of Wilmington, 
N. C. Before this, he had served as a 
private in the militia with his brother. 

Matthew and George Cochran, broth- 
ers of John and James, removed to 
Mount Vernon, Knox Co., Ohio, many 
years ago, and still reside there, engaged 
in farming. Matthew was one of the 
pioneers of that State, having taken up 
land in 181 6, when he could sit in his 
cabin door and shoot deer at the oat- 
stack. He married Ann Clements of 
Butler Co., Penna., Christmas, 181 8, 
and had three children, Alexander, 
John and James, the second still living. 
George Cochran married Martha Shaw, 
of Darby, and had a large family of sons 
and daughters. Several of the former 
were either killed or wounded in the 
Union Army. 

Alexander Cochran, Jr., married 
Beulah Gray, and was killed by a rail- 
road accident, Sept. II, 1840. peleft 
four children, Thomas, James, Sarah 
and Mary, who married and have issue. 
Thomas fought with distinction during 
the Rebellion of 1861-65; was twice 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



328 



captured, and twice promoted as an 
officer in a Pennsylvania regiment. 

Thomas Cochran, brother of James 
and Matthew, died a bachelor in Ches- 
ter, July, 23, 1846, in his 32d year. 
Sarah, a sister, is yet living in Phila- 
delphia. She married George Valen- 
tine, farmer, and brother of the late 
John Valentine, of Chichester, in 1826, 
and spent much of her life in Brandy- 
wine Hundred, Delaware. They had 
eight children, Alexander, John, Wil- 
liam, Thomas, James, Sarah, Elizabeth 
and Engle, all living except James. 

The descendants of Alexander num- 
ber about fifty. 

Cochran street, Chester, is named 
in honor of the Cochran family. 

During the Revolutionary war, there 
was a John Cochran, who was made 
chief Physician and Surgeon of the 
army, Oct. 19, 1780, by Congress. 
He was born in Chester County, Pa., 
Sept., 1730, and entered the Provin- 
cial army as Assistant Surgeon, in 
1755, where he became intimate with 
Captain (afterwards General) Philip 
Schuyler, whilst on duty in northern 
New York. After the war he settled 
in Albany as a physician; and there 
married Schuyler's sister, Gertrude. 
He then settled at New Brunswick, N. 
J. In 1776, he entered the hospital 
service of the army. In 1777, he was 
Surgeon of the Middle Department ; 
in 1780, Director General of Hospi- 
tals. After the Revolution, he set- 
tled in New York, and Washington 
made him Commissioner of Loans. 
He died at Palatine, N. Y., April, 
1807. Atncf'ican Hist. lie cord, 3 vol . , 
173, note. Dr. Cochran was not, I 
imagine, any relative of the present 
family residing in Chester. 

The Cochranes are an old family in 

Scotland. They rose to distinction in 
4':2 



the 15 th century, and have always been 
remarkable for courage and ingenuity. 
Sir William Cochrane was elevated to 
the peerage as Baron Cochrane in 1 647, 
and advanced to the dignity of Earl of 
Dundonald in 1669. • His grand-son 
was Sir John Cochrane, of Ochiltree, 
who, along with Sir Patrick Hume, of 
Polwarth, was concerned in the poli- 
tical troubles which, in the reign of 
James II., brought ruin on the Stuart 
dynasty. While Hume was so fortu- 
nate as to escape abroad, Cochrane 
was taken prisoner in the rising under 
the Earl of Argyle, and being con- 
ducted to Edinburgh, was ignomin- 
iously lodged in the Tolbooth, on the 
3d of July, 1685, there to await his 
trial as a traitor. The day of trial 
came, and, as a matter of course, he 
was condemned to death. 

Sir John Cochrane was married and 
had a family of several sons, and at 
least one daughter, Grisell, about 18 
years of age, who frequently visited 
her father, whose friends were inter- 
ceding for his pardon, although he was 
daily expecting the arrival of his death 
warrant from London. Grisell, deter- 
mined, if possible, to prevent the de- 
livery of the warrant, and assisted by her 
nurse, disguised herself in male attire 
and set off and waylaid the post carrier 
beyond the Scottish borders, and com- 
pelled him to deliver his charge ; then 
taking from the mail-bags her father's 
death-warrant, she destroyed it and 
made her way home without discovery. 
The time thus gained was well em- 
ployed ; one of the King's favorite 
counsellors for a bribe of ;^5ooo, in- 
duced the King to pardon Sir John, 
who afterwards succeeded as the se- 
cond Earl of Dundonald. Those of 
the Cochranes who claim noble de- 
scent, add the final e to their names. 



'J4 



ISTORY OF CPIESTER. 



To the north-west ofthe " Pine'I'ree 
Ph\ce," the former residence of John 
F. Hill, in Ridley, which he inherited 
from his father, and near West Dale 
lived, when I went to school to Ed- 
ward 'I'lionipson, at Springfield school 
house, ail old Mrs. Worrall anil her 
son Abraham, and two of mv school- 
mates were Isaac D. Worrall and his 
sister. Dr. Smith, in his biographical 
sketches, has notices of four persons 
of the name, viz. : Richard, who, he 
says, emigrated from Oare, Berkshire, 
England, in 1682. He was a Friend, 
and served as a juror in the last Court 
held at Upland, but does not api)ear 
to have settled in the county. 

2. John, a Friend, who came from the 
same place as Richard. Both presented 
their certificates at the same time and 
to the same Meeting in Philadelphia. 
John removed to the neighborhood of 
Chester, where, in 1683, he married 
Frances, the widow of Thomas Taylor. 
She died in 1712. In 1714, he mar- 
ried Sarah, the daughter of Thomas 
Goodwin, of Edgmont, and died there 
in 1 742, aged 84 years. By his second 
wife he had seven children, Elizabeth, 
Mary, John, Peter, Sarah, Thomas and 
Mary. By his first marriage he had 
but one son, who died young. 

3. John Worrall and Mary his wife, 
a sister of Henry Lewis, of Radnor, 
settled early in Marple. He is sup- 
jjosed to have been a son of Richard, 
the settler. He died in 1716, leav- 
ing six children, John, Peter, Joshua, 
Henry, Mary and Hannah. His wi- 
dow married John Ikomfield. of White- 
land. 

4. Dr. Thcjinas Worrell, a physician 
of considerable reputation about 1800, 
born in Upper Providence, in 1732, 
was a son of Dr. John Worrell, who 
also practiced in the county ; he grad- 



uated at an European college and 
died young. Dr. Thomas Worrell, 
married Lydia Vernon, cousin of Major 
Frederick Vernon and Captain Job 
Vernon of Revolutionary fame, and 
of Cideon, who took sides w^ith the 
British, and whose property was con- 
fiscatetl as a traitor. Dr. Worrell, 
the younger, and the two doctors Bern- 
hard Van l^eer, were reputed quite 
skilled in native herbs. He died in 
1818, aged 86 years. He was a Friend, 
and his descendants, the Cassins, set- 
tled in the county, and others settled 
near Zanesville, Ohio. 

Dr. Smith says: " It is supposed that 
the name of Worrall, or Worrell, was 
originally Warel, and that those bear- 
ing it are descended from a Sir Hu- 
bert de Warel, who lost three sons at 
the battle of Hastings." 

I have made the above brief extracts 
from Dr. Smith's sketches, which are 
much more minute, for the purpose of 
calling attention to two other settlers 
in Chester, now Delaware County, of 
the name of Worrall. I have before 
me a deed from the Proprietary, dat- 
ed the 2 2d of March, A. D. 1681, to 
Peter Worrall, of Crudt-lanes, in the 
county Palatine of Chester, tanner, 
and Joshua Worrall, of Newtown, in 
the same county, tanner, for 500 acres 
of land within the limits of his grant 
from Charles II., called Pennsylvania, 
to be entered and enrolled within the 
space of six months after such time as 
a public Register shall be appointed 
and settled within the said Province. 
This old deed is now in possession of 
Thos. J. Worrall, Esq., a member of 
the Bar, and late City Solicitor of Phil- 

i adelphia, a descendant of Peter Wor- 
rall, one of the grantees named in said 

I deed, who settled in Chester, now De- 
laware Countv. He was admitted to 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



325 



the Philadelphia Bar, November 29, 
1862. He married, C2ndly,) Eliza- 
beth, dau. of the late William B. Wood. 

The tract of land located by Peter 
Worrall, the original settler, was situ- 
ate in Marple, lying between "Crook- 
ed kill," or Crum Creek, and the road 
from Radnor to Chester, laid out in 
1 69 1. See D}'. Smith and Holmes' 
Maps. No mention is made of Joshua ; 
so I presume the whole 500 acres were 
located in Peter's name. It is proba- 
ble that Joshua did not come to Ame- 
rica, as I do not find his name on the 
records of Chester or Concord Month- 
ly Meetings. John Worrall, son of 
Peter, of Marple, married in 1723, 4 
mo. 20th, Hannah Taylor, of Marple. 
James, son of Peter, married in 1735, 
5 mo. 24, Margaret Calvert of Upper 
Providence. Benjamin, son of Peter, 
married, 1743, 4 mo. 23d, Phoebe Ed- 
wards, of Middletown. 

Among the deaths in records of Ches- 
ter Monthly Meeting, I find, Frances 
Worrall, d. 1712, 10 mo. 13, wife of 
John, of Edgmont ; John, d. 1742, 
2 mo. 4, in his 85th year; Peter, d. 
1722, 5 mo. 7, of Middletown ; Mary, 
d. 1806, 7 mo. I, widow of Thomas ; 
William, of Ridley, d. 1826, 12 mo. 
23, aged 96 yrs. ; Mary, widow of Na- 
thaniel, of Ridley, d. 1839, i mo. 8, 
aged 67 yrs. ; Eliza, widow of John, of 
Springfield, d. 1857, i mo. 22, aged 88 
yrs. William Worrall above-mention- 
ed, was son of Jonathan, his wife's 
name was Phoebe ; they had issue, 
Mary, b. 1766, 10 mo. 17, m. Nathan- 
iel Newlin, 1789, 11 mo. 4; Ann, b. 
1 771, II mo. 17, ;//. Joseph Downing, 
1 79 1, 5 mo. 4 ; and Nathaniel, b. 8 
mo. 14, 1769. 

The following, extracted from the 
Upland Unio7i, of Dec. 3, 1833, is very 
interesting : 



" Hon. Henry Clay. — At a meeting of the 
friends of Mr. Clay, on Monday, the 25th ult., 
at Chester, Thomas Smith, Esq., was called to 
preside, and Robert Churchman, appointed 
Secretary. It being understood that Mr. Clay 
was in the city of Philadelphia, and that he 
intended to remain there but a short time, they 
resolved to appoint a Committee to wait on 
him, and request him to visit the Borough of 
Chester, on his way to the seat of Government, 
to afford themselves and their fellow-citizens 
of Delaware County, an opportunity of person- 
ally paying their respects to him, as a testi- 
mony of their sense of his private worth and 
public usefulness, — when the following gen- 
tlemen were appointed ; Thomas Smith, Esq., 
Capt. Thomas Robinson, Samuel Smith, Esq., 
Joseph Walker, Samuel A. Price, Robert 
Churchman, Wm. Eyre, Jr., Edward R. Cros- 
by, John F. Hill, and William Martin. 

They also appointed Dr. Samuel Anderson, 
John Edwards, Jas. M. Willcox, Dennis Kelly, 
J. P. Crozer, J. Bancroft, Daniel Lamott, Parke 
Shee, Pierce Crosby, Capt. Jas. Serrill, Oborn 
Levis, J. P. Eyre, Wm. Trainer, John Kerlin, 
Samuel Hannum, John Wells, Charles D. 
Manley, Wm. Eyre, Isaiah Fawkes, Hugh P_ 
Lloyd, J. S. Phillips, John Cochran, John 
King, Nicholas Fairlamb, Y. S. Walter, Thos. 
Hemphill, George Serrill, Thomas M. Smith, 
John Larkin, Rev. J. B. Clemson and Job 
H. Terrill, a committee to make suitable ar- 
rangements to receive Mr. Clay. 

The Hon. Henry Clay arrived at this Bo- 
rough in the steamboat Emerald, on Wednes- 
day last. He was received by a large assem- 
blage of the citizens of this county, without 
distinction of party. A very handsome enter- 
tainment had been provided by the Committee 
of Arrangement, at the public house of Mr. 
Henry Reese. After Mr! Clay had been ad- 
dressed by Dr. Anderson, and given a cordial 
shake of the hand to all who were present, he 
with a numljer of others partook of the refresh- 
ments. 

Mr. Clay's reception, considering the siiort 
space of time allotted the Committee, to make 
the necessary preparations, must have been 
flattering to his feelings. We have been po- 
litely favored by one of the gentlemen who was 
present, with the whole of the proceedings, 
which will be found in to-day's paper. 

I never saw Henry Clay but once. 



'S2Q 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



and the following occurrence will show 
under what circumstances. On Aug. 
15, 1847, (Sunday,) I wrote a friend 
as follows, from Philadeli)hia : " Henry 
Clay, arrived here yesterday afternoon 
very unexpectedly. He was met at 
the cars by a few friends, and escort- 
ed quietly to the residence of his friend 
Henry White, in Walnut, west of 
Schuylkill 8th Street, but he was seen 
and recognized, and with flushed faces 
and hurried steps you might have seen 
the Whigs gathering together and has- 
tening to their reading room ; for at 
the name of Henry Clay, what Ameri- 
can does not feel his heart bound? 
the Statesman ! the Patriot ! and the 
Leader of the great Whig party. At 
II o'clock, P. M., a crowd of over 
1000 persons had assembled, in perfect 
silence, in front of the residence of 
Mr. White ; and in a few moments 
after, Capuani's Band in the distance, 
rang out a quick-step, and marched up 
with several thousand more warm- 
hearted Whigs, and as they halted, 
' thirteen cheers for Harry of the 
West,' rolled like distant thunder 
over the quiet city, waking sleeping 
thousands, and telling them in cheer 
after cheer, that the Whig defeated 
( andidate for the Presidency was re- 
ceiving his friends. Then silence 
reigned once more, and from Capu- 
ani's silver bugle, there was breathed 
a strain, low, sweet and mournful, 
such as should awaken the grief-stricken 
Patriot and Father. A few moments 
more and he stood before us at an open 
window reaching to the floor, a flood 
of light behind him ; cheer after cheer 
was given, which told of the admira- 
tion all of us felt for the man before 
us, who had given to his country his 
talents, and to her flag and service the 
life-blood of a dear son. Then, amid 



a deep silence, that clear and flute- 
like voice, which had welcomed La- 
fayette to America for the people of 
his country, fell upon our ears, saying: 
Fellow citizens ! I left my home to 
escape from the scene of thoughts and 
recollections, arising from one of the 
severest afflictions of human life, with 
which it pleased Providence to visit 
me. I made my journey through the 
mountainous parts of Virginia, wish- 
ing to avoid all public demonstrations 
such as this, intending only to seek 
some relief and consolation in the so- 
ciety of my friends. And to-day, 
when I entered, and took as it were by 
surprise your beautiful city, I was not 
prepared for such a scene as this — and 
I should be deficient in gratitude, and 
destitute of all the finer feelings of fhe 
human heart, if I failed to feel deeply 
the kindness you manifest. To Phila- 
delphia, in all the troubles and vicissi- 
tudes of this life, I have always looked 
for sympathy and support, and I have 
always received it. The feelings under 
which I labor, the time itself and the 
occasion, are all unfitting to make a 
set address, and as it is now drawing 
near that day we all must respect, I 
will only add in conclusion, that under 
w^hatever circumstances, in Peace or 
in War, under a good government or 
a bad one, right or wrong, our coun- 
try is always entitled to our support." 
On my return home the night be- 
fore, I wrote out the above remarks in 
my Journal, to preserve a touching in- 
cident in history. The allusion to his 
affliction arose from the death of his 
son, Lieut. Col. Henry Clay, Jr., of 
the first regiment of Kentucky volun- 
teers, who fell mortally wounded, and 
died at the battle of Buena Vista, 
"while leading his regiment with gal- 
lant daring against the enemv." T-t. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



327 



Col. Clay, was a graduate of West 
Point, as were also nearly every officer 
commanding volunteer regiments dur- 
ing the Mexican war. 

I copy from the Upland Union of 
Oct. 8, 1834, the following notice: — 
'^Married in Philadelphia, on Wed- 
nesday evening last, by Alderman 
Hooten, Mr. Robert Churchman, of 
Chester, to Miss Martha Jane, daugh- 
ter of Alexander W. Reed, of the for- 
mer place." Mr. Churchman died at 
a good old age, during the fall of 
1873. His ^^^y child, Albert, died 
a year or so ago in a decline ; after 
his death, Mr. C. failed in health ra- 
pidly. His widow and 2nd wife, Julia 
Cauffman, survives him. 



XXXIV. 

It may be interesting at this day, to 
recall the contents of a copy of the old 
Upland Union or Delaware County, 
Kingsesmig and Blockley Advertiser, 
one of which I have before me, dated 
Octobe 28, 1834, consisting of four 
pages of five columns each, published 
every Tuesday morning, by Joseph 
M. G. Lescure, opposite the Prothono- 
tary's office, at two dollars per annum. 
The first page contains several pieces 
of poetry, some anecdotes and short 
tales, &c. The second page has. an 
advertisement of a change of hours 
of the steamboat "Wilmington," Capt. 
H. Read — fare to Lazaretto, Chester, 
or Marcus Hook, 50 cents, and others; 
a piece of doggerel poetry, entitled 
"Biddle let the Bank alone;" a list 
of the Legislature of 1834-5, in which 
Chester and Delaware's Senators are 
given as George Smith and Francis 
James, and Delaware's Representative 
as Samuel Anderson ; a notice of the 
burning of the Hermitage, Gen. Jack- 



son's residence, in Tennessee. The 
third page, Ohio election returns; the 
opening of the Columbia and Phila- 
delphia Railway, by Locomotives draw- 
ing the cars ; saying "the sceptics — the 
opponents of the improvement system 
— are convinced by the evidence of 
their own senses — are struck dumb by 
the completion of a work which the 
one believed impracticable — the other 
pretended would be ruinous to the 
State; ' ' the official returns for Congress, 
4th dis., the candidates being Archi- 
bald T. Dick, Benjamin Champneys, 
John Morgan, Edward Darlington, 
David Potts, Jr., and William Heister. 
The 4th district, consisted of Delaware, 
Chester and Lancaster Counties. The 
three last had a majority of 1867 votes. 
The Chester advertisements are Dan- 
iel Broomall's hat store, next door to 
Charles Justis' store ; estate of John 
Irwin, by Jane Irwin, Executrix; no- 
tice of an election of thirteen Direc- 
tors of the Bank of Delaware County, 
by Preston Eyre, Cashier ; and the 
fourth page has a large displayed notice 
of "Purdy, Welch & Co.'s Grand 
Mammoth Zoological Exhibition," to 
be given in Chester, near J. Thurlow's 
National Hotel, Oct. 29, from i until 
4 p. M. There is a picture of the Gnu 
or Horned Horse, &c. Admittance, 
25 cents. I remember, that I went to 
see the horned horse> but my recollec- 
tion is, that the menagerie tents were 
back of the Court House and public 
offices. There was a clown, or some 
other performer, who sung a song, 
which I have forgotten. The chorus 
was : 

"The Elephant now goes round, 
And the Band begins to play, 
The boys around the monkeys' cage, 
Had better stay away."' 

Charles Justis, advertises that he has 



328 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



taken the store lately occupied by Pri( e 
^- Cowgill, and "invites the public in 
general and his friends, to call and see 
his goods, which he promises to sell 
cheap." David Abbot, removes his 
Saddle and Harness manufactory to 
Main Street, three doors above the 
hotel of John Thurlow. ' ' Joseph Tay- 
lor, Coach and Harness maker, calls 
attention to his business. Samuel A. 
Price, sells Hats and Caps. W. H. 
Chapman, shaves his friends and scours 
their clothing. J. P. & W. Eyre, sell 
lumber and shingles. The steamboat 
"New Jersey," leaves Marcus Hook 
and Chester every Thursday for Phil- 
adelphia, returning on Friday ; fare, 
37)4 cents; Charles Bilderback, Cap- 
tain : and the sloop " Jonas Preston," 
will continue making regular trips, leav- 
ing Chester on Mondays and Thursdays 
for Philadelphia, and returning on 
Wednesdays and Saturdays. 

In writing of the steamboats that 
plied the Delaware, I neglected to 
mention one of the finest boats that 
formerly traversed the river, the " Wil- 
liam Penn." She was a large and 
noble craft, and after many years 
doing good service to the public, was 
destroyed by fire on the 4th of March, 
1834, when just above the Point House, 
near Philadelphia. There were many 
passengers on board when the fire was 
discovered, and great dismay and con- 
sternation took place, particularly 
among the ladies. She was at once 
run aground on the flats, and the pas- 
sengers, by jumi)ing from the burning 
boat into the shallow water and wad- 
ing through the mud foi' some distance, 
were all saved, except seven persons, 
who were drowned by reason of their 
fright, and not taking the advice of the 
others. Henry Reece, landlord of the 
then Steamboat Hotel at Chester, Col. 



John K. Zeilin, with his wife, child and 
servant, and having under his charge 
Mrs. William Neal, Miss Newlin, and 
another young lady^ were on board of 
the unfortunate craft. Through the 
activity, coolness and good judgment 
of Captain Jeffries, Mr. Reese and Col. 
Zeilin, who were the last to leave the 
burning vessel, order was preserved 
and most of the lives saved. The boat 
was, however, a total loss, being burn- 
ed to the water's edge. 

From some old papers of my grand- 
father, I extract the following, as giv- 
ing the names of some residents in the 
vicinity of Chester: On the ist of 
Feb., 1798, proceedings to recover 
possession of certain devised premises 
in Aston, were commenced before 
William Martin and Samuel C. Price, 
Esqs. , Justices of the Peace, by George 
Peirce vs. Peter Stimmell ; and the 
Sheriff, Abraham Dicks, summoned 
the following Jury : Raper Hoskins, 
William Anderson, James Withy, Jo- 
nas Eyre, Thomas Pedrick, Tristram 
Smith, Jonathan Pennell, James Shaw, 
Edward Engle, Nathan Sharpless, Wil- 
liam Evans and James Mcllvain. 

MARTIN, THE MAN AT ARMS. 

A Soiiff hy Bellamy— Music by Lodor. 
Printed in London. 
Martin the Man at Arms, stalwart and stronij, 
Keeps watch on turret high — 
Now humming the snatch of a rude border song. 
Gazing now at the star-lit sky. 
lie listens to windward ; he looks o'er the lea ; 
All around is calm and still, 
Save the kine in the fold, lowing lazily — 
And the tinkle of the rill. 

While full and low 

Floats down below 

The sentinel's dee]), Good night I 

The sentinel's deep, Clood night! 

The name of Martin, is from the 
Latin word Martins, i. c, warlike, 
from Mars, the god of war. In the 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



129 



Gallic, Mor, is great, diiin, a man ; 
Alordiiin, a chief, a warrior. See Ar- 
thur' s Etymological Dictionary, 191. 
The Martin's of England, claim their 
descent from two illustrious sources — 
some from " Martin of Tours," a gen- 
eral in the army of William the Con- 
t]ueror ; others, more ambitious, from 
Martins, a Pro-Consul of Rome under 
the Emperor Tiberius. A singular in- 
cident gives color to the latter boast : 
"In digging the foundation at the 
back of the London Coffee House, 
adjoining the Church of St. Martin's 
(Ludgate), by the remains of London 
wall, a stone in the form of a Hexagon, 
was discovered in Sept., 1806, with an 
inscription cut on it in Roman letters, 
of which the following is a translation : 
" To the all-glorious Deity Anonclitus, 
in the eleventh year of his provincial 
government, Has most piously erected 
this monument. To the memory of his 
wife Claudia Martina. ' ' See Hiighson' s 
History of London, 3 vol., 619. 

The ancestor of the General, in the 
army of the Conqueror, was St. Mar- 
tin, a Bishop of Tours, who suffered 
many persecutions for his liberal opin- 
ions. Many churches in London and 
elsewhere, are named in his honor. In 
France, the season we call " Indian 
Summer," is denominated "■ L' Ete de 
St. Mai-tin,'" that is, the short summer 
of St. Martin. In Mexico, it is called 
" Veramillo de San Martin.'''' This 
delightful season of the year commen- 
ces in Pennsylvania on St. Ma?'tin''s 
Day, Nov. nth, generally, but some- 
times earlier. 

" A smoke as from a thousand wigwams tells 
The Indian Summer, soft and calm the air 
Swings like a heavy curtain, in the glare 
Of the new risen sun, whose fervor quells 
The frost of Autumn ; by those wondrous spells 
Green woods have been transmuted into red, 
lirown, golden tints, — as beautiful as shells 



Stolen from Ocean's silver stranded bed. 
A languid, dreamy, deep, delicious haze. 
Through which the nearest objects mellowed 

seem, 
Hides the blue distance, whilst the meadows 

gleam 
As if with harvests of the yellow maize; 
'Tis the return of summer, brief and bright, 
His last warm sigh ; last smile of love and light." 

My family claim descent neither 
from the soldier, consul, nor saint; 
but we believe ourselves to be, on the 
female side, descended from Walter 
Martin, of Marcus Hook, he being the 
father of myg. g. grandmother; and on 
the male side, descendants of John Mar- 
tin, who settled in Chester, now Dela- 
ware Co., under William Penn, in 1682; 
having a grant of 500 acres of land, lo- 
cated next to that of Richard Crosby, 
in Middletown . But this latter is mere 
guess. The first of the family of whom 
we have any reliable information, is 
my g. grandfather, who lived in Phil- 
adelphia, and whose signature is at- 
tached to the marriage certificate of 
my grand-parents, which is in the 
words following : 

"This is to certify, that Dr. William 
Martin and Miss Eleanor Crosby, were 
joined together in the Holy Estate of 
Matrimony, on Thursday, the 8th day 
of December, 1796, by me, Levi Heath, 
Rector of Pequia and Bangor churches, 
Pennsyl*. Witnesses, Sally Broom, 
Ann Crosby, Elizabeth Crosby, John 
Martin, John Crosby, and Richard 
Crosby." 

There is a tradition in the family 
that the name of the father of John, 
my g. grandfather, was William, and 
that he was a man of means, doing busi- 
ness in Philadelphia, and was drowned 
in Neshaminy Creek, in his carriage, 
on the night of the great storm in the 
summer of 1795, while on his way to 
visit his daughter, Mrs. Jane Bartram. 



83(1 



II ] STORY OF CHESTER. 



who lived at Newtown, Bucks County. 
My aunt, Ann C Smith, says her re- 
collection of this tradition is, that the 
William Martin referred to, was a bro- 
ther of John ; that the night being dark 
and he not knowing that the Neshaminy 
was swollen by the heavy rain, drove his 
horse into the stream and was drown- 
ed. The Button record mentions a 
great flood of 1795. The father of 
Mrs. Bartram must have been a man 
of some means, because after her hus- 
band Avas declared a traitor, and all 
his large property sold, she retired 
to Newtown in comfortable circum- 
stances. On Holmes' map, a John 
Martin is given as one of the owners 
of land in Southampton township, 
Bucks County. 

My g. grandfather, John, died in 
1805, about 70 years of age, at the 
residence of his sister in Newtown, 
and is buried there ; no doubt his ex- 
act age is on his tombstone; but sin- 
gular to say, notwithstanding the in- 
terest I take in such matters, I have 
never visited the spot where his re- 
mains lie. He w^as married twice; 
by his second wife, he had a son and 
daughter, John and Sarah, who were 
living in Newtown, in August, 1817, in 
the former residence of their aunt, but 
they afterwards removed to the West, 
and their whereabouts is unknown to 
us. My grandfather, Dr. William 
Martin, was the only issue of John, by 
his first wife. The maiden name of 
his mother is unknown. In a book 
called " The History of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ," printed in 1717, 
once ow^ned by the Doctor, on a fly- 
leaf are the following words : "The 
gift of Mrs. Mary Martin to William 
Martin, A. D. 1785," evidently a 
death -bed gift, because on page 136 
there is this entry, under a prayer for 



the glorification of the body after 
death: "Mrs. Mary Martin, departed 
this life December nth, A. D. 1785, 
at 3 o'clock A. M., aged 53 years." 
Both entries being in the Doctor's 
bold familiar hand, of whicli 1 have 
so many specimens. 

As the will of Mrs. Jane Bartram, 
contains the best account we have of 
the family on my father's side, I will 
give the most material parts : " Be it 
remembered that I, Jane Bartram, of 
Newtown, in the county of Bucks, 
widow, do make and publish this my 
last will and testament in manner and 
form following, viz. * * * w\ 
the residue of my estate I order and 
direct to be divided into five equal 
parts or shares. One equal fifth part 
thereof I give and bequeath to Alex- 
ander James Bartram, son of Ann 
Bartram, late Ann Nicholson, of the 
city of Philadelphia ; one other equal 
fifth part thereof, I give and bequeath 
to be equally divided between William 
and Ann Martin, son and daughter of 
my nephew, Dr. William Martin ; one 
equal fifth part thereof, I give and be- 
queath to my nephew^ John Martin, 
son of my brother, John Martin, de- 
ceased ; one other equal fifth part 
thereof, I give and bequeath to my 
niece, Sarah Martin, daughter of my 
said brother John Martin, deceased ; 
and the other equal part thereof, I 
give and bequeath to be equally divid- 
ed among all the children of my niece, 
Deborah Davis, wife of David Davis, 
immediately upon the death of her the 
said Deborah ; and during her natural 
life, I order and direct that she shall 
receive the interest thereof annually," 
&c. The will is dated the 13th of the 
II mo., 1813, and duly proved and re- 
gistered in Bucks County. 

Mrs. Bartram was the widow of Al- 



HISTORY OF CHESTEK. 



331 



exander Bartram, of Scotland, and a 
merchant of Philadelphia, who took 
sides with the British during the Re- 
volution, and was declared a traitor, 
&c., all the incidents concerning him 
and his family have been hereinbefore 
related. She was a Friend, belonging 
to Arch Street Monthly Meeting, and 
was disowned for having been married 
by a priest, and refusing to make ac- 
knowledgment ; see entries 7 mo. 31, 
1767, and 8 mo. 28, 1767. The Mar- 
tin's from whom I am descended, were 
therefore originally Friends. The min- 
utes of the Arch Street Monthly Meet- 
ing of Friends will, no doubt, show 
where the Martins came from ; but I 
have been unable to obtain access to 
them. 

My grandfather. Dr. William Mar- 
tin, was born in Philadelphia, Sept. 
2nd, 1765. He studied medicine, and 
graduated at the University of Phila- 
deli)hia, now the University of Penn- 
sylvania, in the year 1786, as a Bachelor 
of Medicine, the old University not 
then giving the degree of M. D. 
Shortly after his graduation, he went 
to Georgetown, Virginia, to practic:e 
his profession, and whilst there became 
Worshipful Master of the Georgetown 
Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. 
After a residence of a few years there, 
he settled at Chester, Pa., where he 
practiced medicine, and studied law 
with William Graham, Esq., and was 
admitted to practice in 1794. I have 
the certificate of his admission to the 
Philadelphia Bar, dated March 24, 
1794. His diploma, the only one in 
existence, of the University of Phila- 
delphia, I have ; as also his certificate 
of membership in the American Med- 
ical Society. He was appointed a Jus- 
tice of the Peace, on the 9th day of 
Aug., A. D. 1797. He appears, from 



his papers, to have been the captain 
of a military company, at Chester. He 
was also the first W. M. of the Chester 
Lodge, No. 69, A. Y. M. ; and was 
evidently a prominent man in his day. 

Dr. Martin, married Eleanor, daugh- 
ter of John Crosby (the Judge) and 
Ann Peirce his wife, of Ridley, Dec. 
8, 1796 ; they had only two children, 
William, born Sunday, Sept. 17, 1797, 
and Ann Crosby, born at Ridley, April 
II, 1799, still living; she married Jo- 
seph Welsh Smith, son of William 
Smith, Jr., and Margaret Welsh his 
wife, of Philadelphia, April 15, 1824; 
he died Dec. 22, 1842, aged 48 years, 
buried in Ronaldson's Cemetery ; they 
had issue a daughter and son. The 
daughter, Ellen Crosby, born April 3, 
1S32, died in a decline, March 22, 
1857, unmarried, and was buried in 
Woodlands. The son, William Mar- 
tin Smith, now Vice-President of the 
Anthracite Insurance Company of Phil- 
adelphia, married Elizabeth Westray 
Way, a grand-daughter of the late dis- 
tinguished actor, William B. Wood — 
author of "Personal Recollections of 
the Stage," published, Philadelphia, 
1855, by Henry Carey Baird, one of 
my old friends. They have had issue, 
Julia Way, William Wood, Eleanor 
Crosby and Elizabeth Worrall, the lat- 
ter dying in infancy. 

Dr. William Martin died at Chester 
Sept. 28, 1798, and his widow mar- 
ried, secondly, Jan. 10, 1804, John 
Fairlamb Hill, of Ridley, son of Peter ; 
they had an only son, John Crosby 
Hill, who died May 14, 1819, aged 13 
years. He fell from a log laid over a 
creek, on his way to school, and caught 
a severe cold, which settled on his lungs 
and caused his death, and did not die 
as has been stated from injuries re- 
ceived by being run over by a roller 



132 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



on his father's farm. Large heavy roll- 
ers were formerly much used by farmers, 
made out of the trunks of large trees and 
drawn by horses over the fields after 
harrowing, particularly over wheat- 
lields after the grain was sown. My 
grandmother Hill, died Jan. i6, 1837, 
at Crosby Place, in the same room in 
which she was born, aged 59 years, 8 
months and 23 days. Dr. Martin was 
a very prolific writer, chiefly on medi- 
cal topics. I presented to the Histo- 
rical Society of Pa., three volumes of 
his MS. writings, and many old and 
rare books from his library ; also, 
books, letters, old deeds, &c., from 
my father's library, my own and of my 
brother. Dr. Ernest D. Martin's. 

William Martin, my father, a sketch 
of whose life will be hereafter given, 
was born in Chester, and married Sarah 
Ann, a sister of Joseph W. Smith, who 
married my father's sister, Ann Cros- 
by. They were married at St. Peter's 
Church, Philadelphia, by the Rev. 
James Abercrombie, D. D., in 1821. 

The following editorial remarks ap- 
peared in the Delaware Coi/nfy Repuh- 
lican, of Oct. 24, 1862: 

Death of a Good Man. — An oljituary in 
our columns this week, records the death 
of William Martin, Esq., a gentleman well 
and favorably known to most of the citizens 
of this county, in which he spent many of his 
early years. Few men have passed away 
whose loss will be more deeply regretted, and 
none who have left a brighter record of a use- 
ful life. In all the various positions M'hich 
the deceased was called to fill, by the parti- 
ality of his fellow-citizens, he discharged his 
whole duty faithfully and efficiently, and more 
than one benevolent institution in the city of 
his adoption, owes its success, in a great mea- 
sure, to the ability and integrity which he in- 
fused intt) the management of its affairs. 

The Board of Directors of the Delaware 
Mutual Safety Insurance Company, of which 
the deceased had been President for many 
years, assembled at the office of the institution 



on Saturday last, and organized by appoint- 
ing Thomas C. Hand, Chairman, and James 
B. McFarland, Secretary, when the following 
preamble and resolutions were unanimously 
adopted : 

WllKRKAs, wilh saddened hearts, we are 
assembled together upon the melancholy occa 
sion of the death of our beloved fellow-mem- 
ber and President, William Martin, Esq., who 
from the origin of this Company, embracing a 
period of 27 years, so ably and satisfactorily 
discharged the duties devolving upon him, for 
a portion of the time as Secretary of the Com- 
pany, but for the last 18 years as its Executive 
officer ; and whereas, it is fitting and proper 
that suitable expressions of the feelings of the 
members of this Board, induced by the sad 
event, be entered on the records of the Com- 
pany. Therefore, 

Resolved, That in the death of Mr. Martin, 
we mourn the loss of a wise counsellor and 
faithful officer, one whose entire official course 
extending over a period of more than a quar- 
ter of a century, has been eminently charac- 
terized by high-toned probity, discriminating 
judgment, ability and fidelity to the welfare 
and prosperity of this corporation. 

Resolved, That we cherish the' memory of 
Mr. Martin, as a friend endeared to us by so 
many fond recollections and happy associa- 
tions, ever evincing as he did kindness of dis- 
position, urbanity of manners, nobleness of 
heart, and purity of purpose. 

Resoh'ed, That we tender to the family of 
our deceased friend our warmest sympathies 
in their affliction, and the assurance of our 
earnest prayers, that He who hath declared 
that He doth not willingly afflict the children 
of men, will vouchsafe to them that consola- 
tion which He has promised to those who put 
their trust in Him. 

Resolved, That a copy of the proceedings 
of this meeting, attested by the Chairman and 
Secretary, be conveyed to the family of the 
deceased. 

Resolved, That this Board will attend the 
funeral of our deceased memi>er in a body. 

Resolved, That these proceedings be entered 
upon the minutes of the Board, and be pub- 
lished. 

The obituary referred to by Mr. Wal- 
ter in his editorial, was in words fol- 
lowing, written by John P. Crozer, of 



HISTORY or CHESTER. 



333 



Upland, the life-long friend of my 
father : 

Died — At his residence in the city of Phil- 
adelphia, on the evening of the i6th instai^t, 
William Martin, Esq., President of the Dela- 
ware Mutual Safety Insurance Company, in 
the 66th year of his age. 

The halo that encircles military renown, and 
men occupying high places in the arena of 
political life, seems, in the present state of our 
country, to cast into the shade much of the 
distinction and notice due to private worth, 
and to citizens of high local position. Yet, 
while we may properly feel emotions of pain 
and regret when heroes and military chief- 
tains, and men in high places are stricken 
down by death — while the chronicles of these 
fill so largely the columns of our periodicals, 
we ought not, we must not withhold a passing 
notice of the departure from among us of men 
of high, though unobtrusive excellence of 
character, like him whose name appears at the 
head of this communication. 

William Martin was no common man, and 
the simple enumeration of the many and varied 
places of honor and trust he had, through life, 
been selected to occupy, and which he, in every 
instance filled with efficiency and high satis- 
faction to those immediately interested, and to 
the public, is, of itself, amply sufficient to mark 
his character as of great value. 

Mr. Martin was born in Chester, Pennsyl- 
vania, in 1797. His residence was partly in 
his native County of Delaware, where a nu- 
merous and highly respectable maternal an- 
cestry had long resided, and partly in Phila- 
delphia, and his active life is equally identified 
with both these places. 

After his school education, at the instance 
of his grandfather. Judge John Crosby, he read 
law under William Graham, Esq., of Chester, 
and was admitted to practice in 1821. But 
other pursuits were more congenial to his taste, 
and he engaged in business life, first as a Com- 
mission Merchant in Philadelphia, and then 
as a cotton manufacturer, in Aston, Delaware 
County. In 1826-7, he represented the county 
in the .State Legislature. The two leading 
questions of these sessions of the Legislature, 
were the State internal improvement by canal^ 
and a system of common schools for the Com- 
monwealth, in both of which Mr. M. took an 
active interest. Soon after he relinquished 



manufacturing, and became a resident of his 
native Borough of Chester, filling there the 
ofiice of Justice of the Peace, and also Clerk 
to the Commissioners, to whom he rendered 
essential service in originating a complete 
system of book-keeping for the accounts of 
the county, a degree of looseness in these ac- 
counts having previously existed. 

About the year 1834, he was elected Secre- 
tary and responsible officer to the newly char- 
tered Delaware County Insurance Company, 
now the Delaware Mutual Safety Insurance 
Company, of Philadelphia. Upon the removal 
of the office of this company to Philadelphia, 
Mr. M. was transferred with it, and as its 
chief officer, first as Secretary, and for the last 
18 years as President, he presided over that 
institution, with what degree of success its 
present prosperous condition can best testify. 

Mr. M.'s position as chief officer of a com- 
pany doing a very large Fire and Marine busi- 
ness, brought him into contact with a great 
variety of men, and his easy affability of man- 
ner, natural kindness, and prompt decision, 
won for him a standing and popularity in his 
vocation excelled, perhaps, by no underwriter 
in Philadelphia, or elsewhere. 

Amidst the duties of his office, Mr. M. lent 
his judicious aid and services to many public 
institutions, and also to several benevolent 
societies. Of the public institutions may be 
named : Director of the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road, Director of West Philadelphia Railroad, 
Director of the Ocean Telegraph Company, 
President of the Pennsylvania Steamship Com- 
pany, President of the Philadelphia Steam Tug 
Company, President of the Board of Fire Un- 
derwriters of Philadelphia, and a Director, 
from its origin, of the Penn Mutual Life In- 
surance Company. C)f benevolent societies, 
he was a Manager of the Deaf and Dumb 
Asylum, a Director and Controller of Public 
Schools, and President of the Board of Direc- 
tors of the Public Schools of the old City of 
Philadelphia, Director of Girard College, 
Manager of the House of Refuge, and Direc- 
tor of the Seaman's Friend Society. 

Mr. Martin was for many years a consistent 
memlier of the Episcopal Church, and a Ves- 
tryman, first of St. Paul's, Chester, and then 
in Philadel]5hia, of the Church of the Ascen- 
sion, and of St. Luke's, in that city. 

After this enumeration of the many places 
of confidence and trust filled by the deceased. 



384 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



it w.nil.l l)e needless panejryric to say more. 
This brief obituary would, however, be in- 
complete if it were not added that these nu- 
merous apjwintments were seldom — never, in- 
deed, in later life— of his own seeking. His 
life was ever characterized by unassuming 
modesty and refinement — never intentionally 
wounding the feelings of any, and his inter- 
course with all, \\as marked by courtesy and 
kindness. 

The writer of this notice will not invade 
the d(mucile of his home life, other than to 
remark that it comported well with what 
might be inferred from his more public char- 
acter. ^■ 

William and Sarah Ann Martin, had 
the following issue: William, (born at 
Green Bank, Oct. 12, 1821, died in 
infancy,) John Hill, William, Junior, 
Ellen Crosby, Mary Welsh, Luther, 
Georgiana, Mortimer Richmond Tal- 
bot, Sarah Ann and Ernest Dudley 
Martin. 

2. John Hill Martin, the Author of 
this '■^History of Chester and its vieini- 
t}>," was born in Philadelphia, Jan. 
13, 1823, at No. 48 South Front street, 
first door below Chestnut street, west 
side, my father's residence and place 
of business. The house had been previ- 
ously the residence and place of busi- 
ness of my mother's father. After his 
death, the family removed to "Green 
Bank," at Chester, and lived there a 
year or so, during which time Father 
and Mother were married. After prac- 
ticing law at Chester for a few years, 
father went into business as a com- 
mission merchant with Peter Hill, 
and it was then he removed to Phila- 
delphia. Soon after my birth, father 
removed to Aston, (Lenni Mills,) Dela- 
ware County, and began there the man- 
ufacture of cotton goods. In this he 
became embarrassed and lost all his 
means, and returned to Chester and to 
the practice of the law about 1827. At 
an early age, before I can remember, I 



was taken by grandmother Hill to live 
with her at the "Pine Tree Place," in 
Ridley, and remained there until about 
my thirteenth year, after which I passed 
most of my time with my parents in 
Chester, for the purpose of attending 
school. My first teacher in Chester 
was a Mr. Boyle, a short stout Irish- 
man, who taught "a select school," in 
the second story of the old red brick 
school house on Welsh street. My next 
teacher was Caleb Pierce, who died 
Jan'y 13, 1877, in his 78th year, and 
who taught in the same school house, 
down stairs. He used to flog the boys 
frequently, but his whippings did not 
amount to much. My third and last 
preceptor, was William P. Saunders of 
Virginia, a tall, handsome man, with 
long flowing hair, a great beau and a 
favorite with the Chester ladies. He 
induced my father to send me to West 
Point Military Acadamy. Accordingly 
proper application was made, and on 
the 19th of February, 1838, 1 received 
from the President the appointment of 
a cadet, and passed at West Point, three 
of the happiest years of my life, delight- 
ed with air the surroundings of every 
kind, and leaving that noble institution 
with sorrow, yet having no cause to 
regret my resignation ; which took place 
July 10, 1841. I immediately there- 
after commenced the study of the law 
with George L. Ashmead, Esq., of the 
Philadelphia Bar, a most estimable gen- 
tleman, and was admitted to practice, 
Nov. 13, 1844. During the time I 
studied law, I became a member of the 
Law Acadamy, and was for two years 
the Treasurer. I compiled while a 
student "A Digest of study," consist- 
ing of about sixty pages of foolscap, 
which has been of great use to myself 
and others ; several copies are in exist- 
ence in manuscript. In Jimc, 1857, I 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



335 



became the Legal Editor of the Phila- 
delphia Intelligencer, an Insurance 
Journal. 

Fond of scribbling, I kept a journal 
until ,i86i, also a family record, and 
made a collection and copy of all old 
family papers, with sketches of the 
lives, and anecdotes of members of the 
family, and finally, having many years 
ago visited Bethlehem, Pa., and be- 
come attached to its Moravian people 
and that charming spot, which I have 
ever since made my summer home, I 
wrote and published in the Intelligen- 
cer, a History of ^^ Bethlehem a?id the 
Moravians,'''' which was put in book 
form in 1872, and a second edition 
issued in 1873. I ^^so wrote a series, 
' ' Sketches in the lehigh Valley, ' ' which 
were published in the Bethlehem Daily 
Times, in 1872. 

In 1873, I edited and published 
"Historical Notes on Music in Beth- 
lehem," Pennsylvania, by Rufus A. 
Grider, a pamphlet of 41 pages, a 
very interesting work, and in Decem- 
ber, 1876, I began the publication in 
the Intelligencer, of "The Bench and 
Bar," being lists of all persons Avho 
have held Judicial ofifice in Philadel- 
phia, with a list of the members of 
the Bar, &c. I have made in manu- 
script, a collection of opinions on 
questions of Marine Insurance, written 
by the ablest mercantile lawyers of 
Philadelphia and elsewhere, forming a 
large volume of 423 pages and consist- 
ing of 185 opinions, properly indexed 
for reference. I have also a volume 
of Admiralty Reports, and two vols, of 
Insurance Reports, formed of cuttings 
from the Intelligencer, of reports from 
that Journal, of which I have been 
Legal Editor now for nearly 20 years, 
my only duties being to furnish the re- 
ports of Insurance and Admiralty De- 



cisions in England and the United 
States. 

After leaving the Military Acadamy, I 
took no interest in military matters un- 
til the spring of 186 1, when I was elect- 
ed Captain of an Independent Artillery 
company, which drilled at the Acadamy 
of Music, and was composed of some of 
the best citizens of Philadelphia, most 
of whom were stockholders of the 
Acadamy. Some of the members after- 
wards entered the service. Col. Henry 
Coppee, LL.D., drilled the company 
previous to my election as its Captain. 

The following is a Muster Roll of 
the "Independent Artillery Com- 
pany" of Philadelphia, 1861-2. 

John Hill Martin, Captain. 
Strickland Kneass, -ist Lieut. 
Samuel C. Robe, Esq., ■2d Lieut. 
James B. Weaver, Ord. Serg't.* 
Seth H. Butler, 2i/5^rf 7. 
Wm. F. Weaver, Q. M. Serg't. 
Charles O. Abbey, i,th Serg't. 



Priv 
Thomas E. Ashmead, 
Henry J. Boiler, 
Prof. J. C. Booth, 
John Biddle, 
Lucius Burrows, 
Gustavus S. Benson, 
William P. Cresson, 
Geo. W. Carryl, 
E. W. Carryl, 
Ephriam Clark, Jr., 
Jacob Dock, 
Gerald F. Dale, 
William R. Dunton, 
John Embley, 
J. E. Emanuel, 
Penrose Fell, 
Thomas Fobes, 
J. M. Gillilan, 
James E. Gould, 
Charles H. Grant, 
Benjamin F. Huddy, 
Prof. Jno. S. Hart, 
Samuel Hart, 
Rev. Dr. Kirk, 
Prof. B. Kendall, 
A. Kirkpatrick, 
R. M. Lewis, 
Dr. Francis W. Lewis, 



F. A. Lewis, 

J. W. Leigh, 

Dr. James A. McCrea, 

H. U. Messchert, Esq., 

John Mc Arthur, Jr., 

John Mc Arthur, Sr., 

Alexander McElroy, 

Caleb J. Milne, 

F. F. Milne, 

Wm. A. Newbold, Esq., 

Henry Perkins, 

Dr. Henry A. Paul, 

J. Altemont Phillips, Esq. 

Wm. Martin Smith, 

Dr. Geo. R. Starkey, 

Henry D. Sherrerd, 

Charles Short, 

J. E. Stevens, 

J. P. Steiner, 

Enoch Thorn, Jr. , 

D. B. Taylor, 

Capt. James West, 

Dr. Francis West, 

J. H. Welsh, 

Dr. HiUborn West, 

Stephen Williams, 

Charles S. Williams, 

Caleb S. Wright. 



Chaplain, 
Rev. Dr. William Kirk, of Boston, Mass. 

* Orderly Sergeant Weaver resigned to enter the U. 
S. Naval Academy, from which he graduated, and S. 
H. Butler became Orderly Sergeant. 



336 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



3. William Martin, Jr., born Nov. 
10, 1824, at Lenni Mills, married Eliz- 
abeth Bankson, daughter of Walter 
and Sarah Montgmery Thompson of 
Philadelphia, by whom he had issue, 
Walter T., who died July 22, 1876, 
aged 27 years, and Sarah Ann Martin. 
He was Secretary of the Columbia In- 
surance Company, and afterwards of 
the Philadelphia Ins. Co., and then 
Secretary of the Mutual Deposite In- 
surance Association, and finally Secre- 
tary and Treasurer of the West Phila- 
delphia Passenger Railway Co. ; but 
several years ago retired from active 
business pursuits. 

William Martin, Jr., is a good ama- 
teur artist, both with brush and pencil ; 
in his younger days he was given to 
versification. The following effusion, 
of which I can remember only one 
verse, will serve to perpetuate the re- 
collection of a Philadelphia fashion 
that has existed for over thirty years 
to my knowledge. After church ser- 
vice, in the mornings and afternoons, 
crowds of young people promenade 
Walnut Street, on the south or shady 
side. Originally the walk extended 
from Tenth to Broad Streets, at a la- 
ter day, from Eighth Street to the 
Schuylkill River. Now the promenade 
is entirely west of Broad Street. 
" Out Walnut Street, upon the shady side, 
Walked a dandy, sweetly smiling ; 
Oft I marked him with the human tide, 
On Sunday evenings, gently gliding, 

Oracefully he hied ! 
Out Walnut Street, upon the shady side." 

4. Ellen Crosby Martin, born at 
Lenni Mills, married Spencer Bon- 
sall, son of Edward H. and Lydia, 
of Philadelphia. At the time of his 
marriage, Mr. Bonsall was Surveyor- 
in-Chief of the city of Philadelphia, 
and held that jiosition until the con- 



solidation in 1854, when the office be- 
came elective. They have but one 
child, a son, William Martin Bonsall. 

5 . Mary Welsh , born at Chester, Jan . 
5, 1832, died in a decline in Philadel- 
phia, Nov. 8, 1 85 1, and was buried at 
Woodlands, in a lot of ground belong- 
ing to her father. 

6. LutherMartin,bornFeb.i5, 1834, 
at "Crosby Place," Ridley Creek 
quarries, married Anne, daughter of 
Lewis C. and Jane A. Wells of Phila- 
delphia, and had issue John Hill, Jr., 
and William Welsh Martin. Has been 
a clerk in the office of the Delaware Mu- 
tual Safety Insurance Co.,. since Oct. 
16, 1853. 

7. Georgiana Martin, born at Ches- 
ter, uninarried. 

8. Mortimer Richmond Talbot Mar- 
tin, born at Chester, June 21, 1838, 
married Harriet, daughter of George 
and Elizabeth {nee Mulford,) Arm- 
strong of Philadelphia, and has issue, 
W^illiam, Sarah Ann, Frank B. and 
Ernest Dudley Martin. 

9. Sarah Ann, born in Philadelphia, 
married Henry G. Thayer, son of the 
late Edward N. and Agnes. Mr. Thayer 
served during the Rebellion as an As- 
sistant Paymaster in the U. S. navy. 
His father was a midshipman on board 
the U. S. ship "Chesapeake" at the 
time of her capture by H. B. M. ship 
" Shannon," off the port of Gloucester, 
Mass., and his grandfather Thayer was 
a merchant in Boston, where he has 
relatives occupying prominent posi- 
tions in mercantile life. 

ID. Ernest Dudley Martin, yoimgest 
son of William and Sarah Ann, born 
July I, 1843, in Philadelphia, educated 
at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa. ; 
graduated at the University of Penn- 
sylvania as a Doctor of Medicine, Mar. 
II, 1865. His Thesis upon "The 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



337 



Health of Philadelphia," founded on 
the yearly reports of the Board of 
Health, was pronounced an excellent 
paper. He was appointed before grad- 
uation, Mar. 3, 1865, an acting assistant 
Surgeon in the U.S. navy ; was honora- 
bly mustered out at the end of the Re- 
bellion, Oct. 9, 1865, and on Mar. 30, 
1866, appointed an Assistant Surgeon 
in the navy, passing his examination 
second in a class of eighty applicants. 
He died at sea, in the Pacific ocean, 
on board the U. S. steamer "Pow- 
hatan," at midnight, July 16, 1868, of 
the yellow fever, and was buried at 
noon with naval honors. He was a 
young gentleman of more than usual 
promise in his profession. 

My sweet and gentle Mother, depart- 
ed this life, Mar. 20, 1876, aged 75 
years, one month and 16 days. Her 
dear remains repose in our burial lot 
in Woodlands, Philadelphia. On the 
memorial stone is engraven : 

Burial Lot 

of 

WiLLiA.M Martin, 

Born Sept. 17, 1797, 

Died Oct. 16, 1862. 

His remains lie in the Fanaily 

Vault in St. Paul's old churchyard, 

Chester, Pa. 



In Memor)' of 

His Wife 

Sarah Ann Martin, 

Born Feb. 4, 1801, 
Died March 20, 1876. 

And of their daughter 

Mary Welsh, 

Born Jany. 5, 1832, 

Died Nov. 8, 1851. 

And of their son 

Ernest Dudley Martin, M. D. 

Asst. Surgeon, U. S. Navy, 

Died at sea, July 16, 1868, 

Aged 25 yrs. & 15 dys. 



The following inscriptions are cut 
on the tombstone covering our family 
vault in the old graveyard of St. Paul's, 
Chester : 

" Dedicated to the memory of 

William Martin, M. D. 

Born in Philadelphia, September 2d, 1765; 

Died at Chester, September 28th, 1798. 

son of John and Mary Martin. 

and Eleanor Crosby, his wife, 

Born April 24th, 1777, 

Died January 1 6th, 1837, 

Daughter of 

John and Ann Crosby, of Ridley. 

Also of 

William Martin, Esquire, 

Son of William and Eleanor Martin, 

Born September 17th, 1797, 

Died Octoberi 6th, 1862. 

And his wife 

Sarah Ann Martin, 

Born February 4, 1801, 

Died March 20, 1876. 

BiD'ied at ]VoodlanJs. 

On the north side of the tombstone, 
is cut: 

William, son of William and Sarah Ann 
Martin, liorn October 12, 1821 ; died Septem- 
ber 7, 1823. 



XXXA^ 

The Philadelphia, Wilmington and 
Baltimore Railroad, running as its title 
indicates, from Philadelphia to Balti- 
more, and passing throughWilmington, 
Delaware, passes also through the city of 
Chester. The road was located and sur- 
veyed during the year 1836. Matthew 
Newkirk being the President of the 
corporation, Samuel H. Kneass, the 
Chief Engineer, Henry G. Swift and 
Herman J. Lombsert, late Second Vice 
President of the Pennsylvania Railroad 
Company, were the Assistant Engi- 
neers, and Strickland Kneass, now As- 
sistant President of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad Company, was Rod-man. 



338 



HISTUKY OF CHESTEK. 



The road was first opened for travel 
in the year 1838, with Charles Lom- 
b?ert (the father of Herman) as Super- 
intendent. The contractors for the 
division in Delaware County, were 
Cochran, Eves, and Thurlow ; two of 
them well-known residents of the vicini- 
ty of Chester, viz: John Cochran, now 
deceased, and John J. Thurlow, still liv- 
ing (1877.) The track of the Railroad 
was originally laid with flat-bar, call- 
ed strap-rail, weighing about fifteen 
pounds per yard, fastened upon a con- 
tinuous stringer, with cross-ties and 
mud-sills, and with a gauge of four feet, 
eight and a half inches. The track is 
now laid with T-rail, upon cross-ties. 
Several years ago the Company erected 
a handsome Passenger Depot at Ches- 
ter, and now 14 trains run daily, con- 
necting Chester with Philadelphia; and 
the track which formerly crossed the 
meadows between the two cities, and 
over the creeks by drawbridges, has 
been removed back from the river front 
to the line of the highlands, opening 
up a beautiful and healthy section of the 
County of Delaware, which is already 
being built up by wealthy citizens of 
the larger city, with handsome houses 
for summer residences. 

A handsome marble monument, near 
"Gray's Ferry," which was erected j 
about 1838, to commemorate this en- 
terprise, gives the name of the Directo- 
ry and those engaged in this successful 
undertaking. . Since the opening of 
their new tracks, called "The Darby 
Improvement, " the Company have sold 
or leased their old tracks, through the 
marshes, to the Reading Railroad Com- 
pany, for the use of its coal trade ; and 
the Reading have laid tracks froni 
Ridley Creek to and through Ches- 
ter, along Front street, which, al- 
though it will increase the commercial 



prosperity of the city, will prove a 
great nuisance in time, by passing 
trains during the day, and ear-splitting 
whistles during the night. 

On Edgmont Avenue, just north of 
Providence road, there still stands in 
an altered condition, the old Caldwell 
mansion. When I was a boy, ' ' Squire 
Caldwell" lived there, having quite a 
large farm. The property passed out 
of the hands of the family lately. The 
sons removed to Philadelphia many 
years ago. One of them, William G. 
Caldwell, now deceased, married Maria 
De Young of Southwark. 

In the olden times, before the com- 
mon school system of education of the 
present day went into operation, the 
County School-master, or the School- 
mistress, were indispensable person- 
ages. Everybody knew the schoolmas- 
ter in his vicinity ; and the "Old School - 
master" was pointed out with pride, 
and often-times with affection. I often 
recall with pleasure the days when I 
went to school to Edward Thomas, in 
the old Springfield School house, with 
my cousins, Crosby P. and Ellen E. 
Morton, Sarah and Hannah Lownes; 
for boys and girls in those days attend- 
ed the same school, the boys sitting 
on one side of the house, and the girls 
upon the other. At a later day I went 
to school to Christopher W. Steele, at 
the old Ridley school-house, on the 
"Big Road," just above Little Crum 
Creek, now called Crum Lynne, on the 
confines of Ridley Park. I remember 
that we did not like our schoolmaster. 
He was severe, and flogged his scholars 
without discretion. He married a 
daughter of William and Nancy Hill 
of Ridley, and lived at Leiperville in 
the stone dwelling yet standing, nearly 
opposite the tavern, on the Stille farm. 
Of those who attended Ridley school 



IT J ST O II Y OF ClIKSTKIJ 



with me, I can recall Robert P. and 
Nathaniel D. Crosby, my cousins; Re- 
becca and Sadie Worrall, William and 
Thomas H. Maddock, Abraham, Hen- 
ry and Mary Trimble, Ebenezer Ers- 
kine, Lewis Garrett, Engle Smith, 
Robert Henderson, Marshall Attmore 
Jones, Thomas, Sarah and Maria Ottey, 
Charles J. Morton, David Jordan,. 
Elisha and Edward Horn, Jac ol) Kri- 
der, Philip Morris and liis sister, of 
Morris' Ferry. 

These schools were called "Charity 
Schools," yet they were not so in the 
strict acceptation of the term. For 
some remarks in reference thereto, see 
Martin vs. McCord, 5 Watts, 492. 
And for a better understanding of the 
formation of these schools, and the 
manner in which they were conducted, 
1 insert here an account of Ridley 
school and school-house, compiled 
from the minutes. 

On the 1 2th of 2 mo., 1800, the fol- 
lowing inhabitants of Ridley, met at 
the house of Jacob Painter to take action 
on the erection of a school house in 
that township, viz : 

William Paul, Caleb Davis, Jeremiah Mc- 
Ihaiii, Peter Hill, James McIIvain, Nathaniel 
Worrall, Jacob Painter, William Beatty, Jon- 
athan Smith, Thomas Price, Daniel Morton, 
and Aaron Morton. William Paul was cho- 
sen Chairman and Aaron Morton, Secretary. 

' Resoh'ed, That after having taken into con- 
sideration the propriety of building a school, 
house on the lot of ground granted by Isaac 
Culin, they consider it unfit for that purpose.' 
Whereupon Caleb Davis proposed to give 42 
perches of ground on the north side of the great 
road, adjoining the lot now occupied by Peter 
Norburg, which was unanimously accepted. 

' Resolved, That in order that there may be 
a full meeting of the subscribers and others, to 
determine on so important an object, Nathan- 
iel Worrall, William Beatty and James Mc- 
IIvain, be appointed for the purpose of notify- 
ing the following persons, viz. : John Crosby, 



Esq., John Crosby, Jr., John McIIvain, Abra- 
ham Trimble, Isaac Culin, James Maddock, 
Jesse Worrall, Isaac McIIvain, George Jordan, 
William Hill, Joseph Pearson, John Culin, 
John Hoff, Augustus Legrand, Andrew Tong- 
acre, William Price, Jacob W'crrall, William 
W^orrall, William Shoemaker, Thomas Hall, 
Lewis Mowry, Thomas Blithe, John Irwin, 
William Boon, John Smith, Ann Smith, Ra- 
chael Effinger, Lewis Trimble, Jr., Isaac 
Morton, Israel Morton, Robert Colvin, Henry 
Trimble, Mary Pywell, Peter Revel, Anlhony 
(Juyre, Samuel Hoff, William Tritcs, Hcnja- 
min Miller, Rebecca Miller, James Miller, 
Michael KiUs, John Kitts, Daniel Lampley, 
Isaac Hance and Peter Welch, of our next 
meeting.' 

Resolved, TX-yzX Fifth-day next, the 17th of 
this instant, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, at 
the house of Jacob Painter, be the time and 
place of our next meeting.' 

At the adjourned meeting there were present, 
William Paul, Caleb Davis, Jacob Painter, 
Jeremiah McIIvain, John McIIvain, Abraham 
Trimble, Nathaniel Worrall, Aaron Morton, 
James Maddock, William Beatty, Henry Trim- 
ble, Thomas Price, Hugh McIIvain and James 
McIIvain. Wm. Paul in the Chair, and James 
McIIvain, Secretary. The question was taken 
on building a school-house on the land offc7-ed 
by Calel) Davis, and carried ; said land to be 
conveyed to Abraham Trimble, Jeremiah Mc- 
IIvain and Nathaniel Worrall, for the use of 
a school ; and the Secretary was directed to 
draw a subscription paper, to be offered to the 
members of the meeting and inhabitants, for 
their sul)Scriptions for building the school- 
house. James Maddock, Aaron Morton and 
James McIIvain, were appointed and directed 
to draw a draft of a school-house and make 
an estimate of the expense of building, and 
produce it to the next meeting. Adjourned, to 
meet at the same place, on Fifth-day, the 25th 
of this month, at 3 o'clock, and that the per- 
sons to whom the deed is to be made produce 
it to said meeting. 

At the adjourned meeting there were pre- 
sent, William Paul, Caleb Davis, Peter Hill, 
Abraham Trimble, John McIIvain, Jeremiah 
McIIvain, James Maddock, Jacob Painter, 
William Hill, George Jordan, William Beatty, 
Nathaniel Worrall, Isaac McIIvain, Isaac 
Worrall, Peter Revel, Michael Roe, Henry 
Trimble and James McIIvain. The Deed for 



840 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



the land conveyed by Caleb Davis and wile, 
being produced was read, as follows : 

'This Indenture, made the 25th of July, 
A. I). 1800, between Caleb Davis, of Dela- 
ware County, in Pennsylvania, and Lydia, his 
wife, of the one part, and Abraham Trimble, 
Jeremiah Mcllvain and Nathaniel Worrall of 
the other part, Witnessetli, that the said Calel) 
Davis and I,ydia his wife, as well for and in 
consideration of the sum of live shillings, law- 
ful money, &c. •■-' ■••• "•■" "•■" Have given, 
granted, bargained and sold, aliened, enfeoffed 
and confirmed and by these presents do give, 
grant, bargain and sell, alien, enfeoff and con- 
firm unto the said Abraham Trimble, Jeremiah 
Mcllvain and Nathaniel Worrall, their heirs 
and assigns, all that lot or piece of ground, 
situate, lying and being in the township of 
Ridley, in the County aforesaid : Beginning 
at a stone in the side of the post-road leading 
from PhiladeljAia to Chester and at the north- 
east corner of the garden miw in the tenure of 
Peter Norburg; thence north thirty-four degrees 
west seven perches to a stone ; thence north 
fifty-eight degrees, east six perches to another 
stone ; thence south thirty-four degrees seven 
perches to a stone; thence south fifty-eight 
degrees, west six perches, to the place of be- 
ginning, containing forty-two perches, more 
or less, &c. "■■' "■■■ "■'" ••' In Trust 

nevertheless, and to the uses, interests and 
purposes hereafter mentioned and no other ; 
that is to say, that they the said Abraham 
Trimble, Jeremiah Mcllvain and Nathaniel 
Worrall, and the survivors and survivor of 
them and the heirs, executors and administra- 
tors of such survivors should stand and be seiz- 
ed of the lot of ground and all other the here- 
ditaments and premises hereby given, granted, 
bargained and sold, or intended so to be, for 
the use of all such inhabitants of the township 
of Ridley and its vicinity, whose names are 
indorsed on the back of this indenture, to 
erect and build a school-house or other neces- 
sary buildings thereon, for the education of 
youth therein ; which said school-house and 
all other buildings to be erected thereon, shall 
be deemed, construed and understood to be, 
antl they are hereby declared to be free only 
for the use, education and instruction of the 
youth resident in and belonging to the said 
inhabitants of Ridley and its vicinity whose 
names are indorsed on this indenture, and their 
representatives forc\cr,' ivc. 



The names of subscribers indorsed 



William Paul, 
Jeremiah Mcllvain, 
Abraham Worrall, 
John Mcllvain, 
James Mcllvain, 
Aaron Morton, 
Jacob Painter, 
James Maddock, 
Nathaniel Worrall, 
Hugh Mcllvain, 
Henry Trimble, 
Isaac Mcllvain, 
Caleb Davis, 



Thomas Price, 
William Beaty, 
Michael Rowe, 
Rachel Effinger, 
Isaac Worrall, 
George Jordan, 
Peter Hill, 
William Hill, 
Mary Pyvveil, 
Peter Revel, 
Daniel Lampleigh, 
William Devanport, 
fesse Worrall. 



Leiperville is the new name for the 
old village of Ridley. Abotit the year 
1835, George G., William J. and Sam- 
uel M. Leiper purchased of the Mcll- 
vains their estate at Ridley, and re- 
named the village Leiperville. The 
township was doubtless named from 
Ridley in Cheshire, Eng., whence 
came John Simcock, the owner of a 
large quantity of land therein. 

The Managers during lothmo., 1800, 
reported to the trustees that the build- 
ing wouki shortly be ready for the re- 
i ception and accommodation of the 
school, whereupoii the trustees adver- 
tised for a tutor, and selected for that 
office Jacob Fenton. a graduate of 
Dartmouth College. 

The agreement made the 15 th of 
loth mo., 1800, with Jacob Fenton, 
was that he should ' ' teach a regular 
Day School, subject to the direction of 
the Trustees, in the rudiments of the 
English language: Reading, writing, 
arithmetic, bookkeeping, geography, 
and either or every branch of the mathe- 
matics, at the rate of two dollars a quar- 
ter for every scholar, subscribed for the 
term of three months, to commence the 
20th day of loth mo., 1800. And the 
subscribers to said school, agree to pay 
the said Fenton, or order, two dollars 
for every scholar stibscribed, together 
with a reasonable charge for wood and 
ink." 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



341 



Before the quarter was up, Fenton got 
himself in trouble. He sent his bills 
before they were due, refused to allow 
for time lost by absence, and at the end 
of his term bid the trustees defiance, 
and kept possession of the school . The 
trustees resolved to eject him. The 
entry is brief : (Jan.,' i8oi,l "on the 
morning of the 23rd the foregoing reso- 
lution of the trustees was carried into 
effect." 

"2 mo. 2, 1801, William Fairlamb 
commenced teaching in Ridley school, 
at the rate of eight dollars a year, fire- 
wood and ink allowed." Ink came in 
paper packages in those days. The 
preparation was put into a bottle, a 
certain quantity of water poured upon 
it, then it was shaken up, and after 
standing a while, was ready for use. 

4 mo. 6, 1801, Samuel Lytle com- 
menced teaching at $2 a quarter, and 
fire-wood and ink. The Trustees 
"agreed to meet in future on the first 
2nd day of each month, at 2 o'clock, 
in the afternoon," or to pay fifty cents 
for every such neglect ; which money 
was to be laid out in books for the use 
of the poor of the school. 

10 mo. 5, it was agreed "to give 
premiums at the next examination to 
those scholars who should make the 
greatest improvement or excel in any 
particular branch of education, and for 
the second and next best." 

Feb. 6, 1804. Meeting of the sub- I 
scribers to inquire into the decorum of ' 
the school, the conduct of the master, j 
and the neglect of the trustees to at- 
tend to their duties for two years. The 
old board of tru-stees were removed and ! 
a new board appointed. 

Feb. 20, 1804, a meeting of trustees 
report that there were "45 scholars," 
and that the master's conduct was not 
approved. On Mar. 5, there Avere 37 



scholars. Trustees unanimously agreed 
not to employ Mr. Lytle, the present 
master, any longer than his present en- 
gagement ; and on April 2, the trus- 
tees found the school-house locked, 
"neither teacher nor scholars" being 
in attendance. 

May 3, 1804, Archibald McKinny 
became teacher, preparing the articles 
of agreement, and then refused to fur- 
nish the trustees with a copy, so "no 
record could be made." The conse- 
quence was, the school fell off to 15 
pupils, and the master was discharged. 

12 mo., 1804, Joseph Barrows be- 
came the teacher. In April 1805, he 
had 43 scholars, and was much praised 
for his capacity. In June there were 68 
scholars in attendance, and in August 
the master absconded in debt to seve- 
ral persons. 

Sept. 9, 1805, Jonas P. Fairlamb 
agreed to teach . Caleb Davis, however, 
took his stove away, and James Mad- 
dock undertook to procure another, 
"to remain forever for the use of the 
school." 

Oct. 28, 1805, the Committee set- 
tled, allowed and approved the account 
for building the school, of $502.19, 
being $121.19 i" excess of the contri- 
butions. 

On Dec. 12, 1805, Jonathan Dutton 
became schoolmaster, the terms still 
being the same, $2 per scholar. In 
Jan. i8o6,'he had 26 scholars, but had 
no authority over them, and the school 
soon fell to 14 scholars. 

April 28, 1806, James Townsend be- 
came master, at $2.50 for subscribers' 
children, and 20 per cent, more for 
non-subscribers. In May 23, there 
were 40 pupils. 

About the year 1812, Thomas Kitts 
was teacher, with 39 scholars in attend- 
ance. 



:J42 



HISTORY OF ClIESTEH. 



Ill 1816, Jan. 15. Jesse Broomall was 
thesclioolmaster, at $2.50 per scholar, 
and here on the records the dollar 
mark is first used. April 18, 181 6, he 
agrees to teach six months, for $160. 

June, 181 7, Michael Burke was mas- 
ter for three months at $3. Then he was 
engaged another quarter^ "at which 
time Jesse Broomall has engaged to re- 
turn : and on Dec. 29, he resumed his 
position as teacher." 

Mar. 27, 1819, Samuel Lytic com- 
menced teaching at ^3 per ipiartcr. In 
August there were 60 scholars. The 
trustees thought this too man\', and 
notified the subscribers that only 50 
would be received per day. 

Feb. 5, 1820, the trustees on account 
of the teacher's extreme youth and in- 
experience, &c., (his name is not given), 
advertised for another teacher in the 
Village Record and Post Boy. Samuel 
Lytle and Nathaniel Vernon applied. 
The latter was chosen. Terms, ^2 a 
quarter; $3 if mathematics was taught. 

After 1820 the Meeting of the sub- 
scribers became very irregular. On Jan. 
30, 1830, the School had 35 scholars. 
7 Mar. 1 83 1, subscribers' meeting; new 
names, Joseph Garrett and Joseph Law 
son. Trustees elected were James Mad- 
dock, Josei)h Garrett and Edward 
Home. 

Mar. 15, 1834, meeting of subscri- 
bers or their legal representatives ; pre- 
sent, Joseph Garrett, William Hill and 
George (t. Leiper. 

The next meeting was held on Jan. 
20, 1855, by the heirs and representa- 
tives of the original subscribers to the 
lower (or old) Ridley school-house; 
present George Jordan, Jacob Hewes, 
Jonathan P. Newlin, Jacob Worrall, 
Abraham F. Patterson, William Mad- 
dock, amd William Worrall. On 
motion. George Jonlaii. Jacob Hcwcs 



and Jacob Parry were elected Trustees 
lor three years. 

Jan. 18, 1862, meeting of the heirs, 
&c. Jacob Parry, chairman, Wm. 
Worrall, Junr., Sec. The following 
persons were nominated for Trustees, 
Jona. P. Newlin, Jacob Worrall, Jacob 
PaJ-ry) Spencer Mcllvain and Israel 
Maddock. Mcllvain, Worrall and 
Maddock were elected for three years. 

Since the last date there has been no 
entry in the minutes. I am under the 
impression that after Christopher W. 
Steel ceased to be the schoohnaster, 
Alexander M. Wright, John Stille, 
David Jordan, Edward Home, Thom- 
as H. Maddock, Esq., and»Ebenezer 
Erskine, were schoolmasters. The old 
school house is built of pointed stone. 
The minute book is in possession of 
Jacob Hewes of Eeiperville, and the 
property is in possession of the heirs of 
Caleb Davis, who claim that it has re- 
verted to them from non use for the 
purposes for which it was donated; 
a new school house having been lately 
erected (1873), ^^^^i" Leiperville. The 
old school house has not been used as 
a school since about 1862. 

A good anecdote is related of the 
Baron de Steuben. After the Revolu- 
tion he settled in Oneida County, New 
York, and the inhabitants of the vicini- 
ty met to establish a school, and the 
Baron offered to donate a lot near his 
residence, on which to erect the school 
house. He was asked whether the noise 
of the children would not annoy him, 
and he replied, " Oil I 1 dont care for 
that; I want to see the little devils 
fighty Frederick William Augustus 
Baron de Steuben, was Aid de Camp 
to Frederick the Great, and In.spector 
General of the Continental Army, after 
the Revolution. New York presented 
him with 16,000 acres of land in 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



343 



Oneida County, on which he erected j 
a log-house; the tenth part of the lands j 
he gave to his aids North, Popham and 
Walker. On Jan. 30, 1778, the Baron 
visited Bethlehem, Pa., and was enter- 
tained by the Moravian brethren, and 
there his descendants still live; viz., Au- 
gustus Steuben, a farmer, one of whose j 
daughters married Theodore T. Lev- 
ers ; another married Frank Windt ; and 
yet another is the widow of George 
Reich, late of Bethlehem. The Baron 
died on his estate near Utica, N. Y., 
in 1794. He was born in Madgeburg 
in Prussia, A. D., 1730, and came to 
America in 1777. Congress voted 
him an annuity of $2500, in 1790. 

When I went to reside with my pa- 
rents, in Chester, about 1835, I went 
to school to Caleb Pierce, in the old 
brick school-house erected in 1770; 
the date can be seen on its southern 
gable, formed with black glazed bricks. 
William P. Saunders afterwards taught 
school in the same building and was 
my last school teacher. This old 
school-house was torn down in July, 
1875, ^^ niake room for a large addi- 
tion to the public school-house at 
the corner of Fifth and Welsh Streets. 
The walls were much thicker than 
are now generally laid, and every 
course was tied, so that the workmen 
had great difficulty in taking it down. 
The bricks, which were as sound as 
they were on the day they were first 
laid in headers and stretchers, are 
said to have been made in England, 
but there is no evidence to support 
this story, while all the probabilities 
are against it, since at the time of its 
erection, importing brick from Eu- 
rope had been discontinued by the 
colonies. The ground on which the 
school-house stood belonged to Joseph 
Hoskins, who, in his will, ])roved July 



21, 1773, devised to his friends Henry 
Hale Graham and William Swaffer, a 
lot 100 feet square at the intersection 
of Welsh or Back Street and the King's 
Road, in trust for the use of the in- 
habitants of the Borough and town- 
ship, " for the Building and Erecting 
thereon a School House or School 
Houses or other Edifices for Teaching, 
Instructing and Educating of Youth 
therein." His project as to the build- 
ing appears to have been carried out 
before he died. In the year 1842, the 
addition to the old school-house was 
made, and in 1857, the large building 
on the corner of Fifth and Welsh was 
erected. Within its low -ceiled room, 
many of the old people of this vicin- 
ity received their early education, 
and many yet remain with us who 
recall their school days passed in that 
building more than half a century ago, 
when ''Billy Neal," whose acts with 
the ferule were terrible, was the pre- 
siding potentate within those ancient 
walls, and who made a fortune in Mul- 
ticaulis ; and people yet speak in Ches- 
ter of "old Samey Lytle," an ancient 
schoolmaster, in terms of the utmost 
affection and respect. A short sketch 
of the family of this old favorite and 
his descendants may not be without 
interest, so I give it. 

Samuel Lytle, an Irishman, came to 
this country before the Revolution, and 
lived on theTarm now owned by Graham 
Flower, son of William G. Flower, and 
situated about two miles from Chester. 
He also owned three old log houses, 
which formerly stood where the ' ' Up- 
land Building" now stands, and the 
house now kept by Mr. Morris as a 
restaurant. He sawed ship-plank for 
the Government during the Revolu- 
tion, and got paid in Continental mo- 
nev. His wife was an Irishwoman, 



:\U 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



anil came to America with him ; they 
were Presbyterians, and had the fol- 
lowing children, viz. : Samuel Lytle, 
the well-knowr schoolmaster, John, 
Ellen, Betsey and William Lytle. 

Samuel Lytle married Mary Coffin, 
of Nantucket, Mass. ; they had issue, 
I . Sarah, who married Abraliam Strick- 
ler; 2. Ellen, married Samuel Urian ; 
3. Walter C, unmarried, and living at 
Chester; 4. Elizabeth, married to Al- 
exander M. Wright, late of Ridley, 
deceased, who had two girls, Anna 
Eliza and Mary. Mr. Wright was at 
one time the schoolmaster, at Ridley. 
5. Samuel, deceased; 6. Margaret, 
who married Edward L. Thomas; 7. 
Franklin, wounded at the battle of 
Petersburg, Va., died afterwards of 
his injuries ; 8. Frederick Plummer 
Lytle, who died young. He was nam- 
ed after elder Frederick Plummer, who 
used to preach in the stone meeting- 
house in Leiperville ; the congrega- 
tion that worshipjied there were called 
Plummerites. 

About 1836, an Irishman by the 
name of Boyle, an excellent teacher, 
taught a select school in the second 
story of the old brick school, then the 
only school-house in Chester. When 
I was a boy, Miss Eliza Finch taught 
very youngchildrenofboth sexes, at her 
residence, the " Logan House. ' ' Miss 
Eliza Finch's mother and herself came 
to Chester from Philadelphia, where 
they used to reside with her grand- 
mother, Mrs. Stout, at the N. E. cor. 
of Third and Spruce Sts. My grand- 
mother Smith, then lived in Third St., 
west side, second door north of Spruce 
St. . Among those who went to school 
with me in the old brick school-house 
at Chester, I (an recall Hamilton, 
Henry O. and Evelina Porter; Samuel, 
Harry and Mary Edwards; J. Edward, 



and Arabella Clyde ; Edward, Isaac and 
Lewis Eyre ; David Jordan, of Ridley ; 
Franklin and Emma Dick ; Thomas 
T. and EmelineThurlow; Engle, John, 
Maggie and Elizabeth Cochran; Sam'l 
Long ; Amanda Bidgood, daughter of 
Capt. B. ; Jackson Gibson and a twin 
brother; John Booth; James G.Shaw; 
Peirce Crosby ; James Burk, of Shoe- 
makerville ; John, Samuel, Ellen and 
Libbie Irwin ; Samuel, Bickham, Sarah 
and Annie Price; Mary Barnard ; Po- 
cahontas Bartram ; Asbury Kelly; Ed- 
ward and Hannah Lear ; Samuel N. 
Smith ; George Kerlin,son of " Squire 
Kerlin;" William Kerlin ; Hannah 
Rulon ; Thaddeus K. Martin, and his 
sister ; Edward and Emma Spear ; and 
Susan Clark, a daughter of Captain 
Clark. 

XXXVL 

The old brick school-house was, I 
have no doubt, erected in 1770, in the 
same way, and the school conducted in 
the same manner as Ridley school was, 
as is shown by its minutes. I regret 
exceedingly, that the records of Ches- 
ter school cannot be found. I have 
been fortunate enough, however, to find 
among some old papers of my grand- 
father, Dr. William Martin, and in his 
hand-writing, the following '' Rules 
and Regulations agreed upon by the 
Trustees of Chester School, at a meet- 
ing held January 9th, 1796 : 

1st. That one of the Trustees shall 
be annually chosen President, whose 
duty it shall be to act as Chairman at 
every general meeting of the Trustees. 
And who shall subscribe all drafts 
upon the Treasurer for money direct- 
ed by the Board to be paid. He shall 
attend at each and every quarterly 
examination of the school : and call 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



o4{3 



special meetings of the Trustees when 
he shall deem the same to be necessary 
— or upon the application of any two 
Trustees, according to the former rules. 

2d. That the remaining Trustees be 
divided into three classes, who shall 
by turns visit the school, one in each 
month ; that is, the ist class the first 
month, the 2nd the second mo., &c. 

3. That the President, Trustees and 
Treasurer shall visit and examine the 
school quarter-yearly, and for neglect 
of attendance, shall pay the sum of ^ 
of Dol. to the Treasurer, to be appro- 
priated as the charity fund of the said 
school. 

4th. That no tutor shall have charge 
of the school but such as shall be ac- 
cepted by the Trustees, who shall be 
called together at reasonable notice, 
when such an occurrence shall make 
the same necessary. And on the mis- 
behavior or misconduct of any such 
tutor, it shall be the duty of the Trus- 
tees to remove him, by giving him 
reasonable notice to depart. 

5th. That the tutor of said school 
(or the first tutor, if the number should 
increase) for the time being, shall be 
Secretary to the Board of Trustees ; 
whose duty it shall be to keep a fair 
record of their proceedings, and sub- 
scribe the same, and to sign all notices 
of general or special meetings of the 
Trustees, and cause each one to be 
served with the same, a reasonable 
time before every such meeting. 

6th. That the Trustees, at the be- 
ginning of each and every year, shall 
advertise for applications to be made 
to them for educating such children or 
other persons gratis, as shall be proper 
objects of the charity fund of the in- 
stitution, and which shall embrace the 
greatest number of persons that the said 
fund will admit of, or an agreement 



with the tutor of the said school, enable 
them to give assistance to. 

7th. That as exciting in the minds 
of children and youth laudable emu- 
lation, and a desire to improve, is of 
beneficial consequence in conducting 
their education, the Trustees shall, at 
their quarterly examinations, propose 
little premiums of books, papers, quills, 
&:c., to those who excel in reading, 
writing, speaking, arithmetic, &c. ; 
the expense to be defrayed out of the 
charity fund of the school. 

8th. It shall be the duty of the Trus- 
tees to see )' no books containing the 
tenets or doctrines of any sect in re- 
ligion be taught in the school, or any 
that may convey improper political 
principles to the children of Republi- 
cans ; since no others ought to be ad- 
mitted, but .such as teach the pure 
principles of religion as contained in 
the Holy writings of the Prophets and 
Evangelists — of morality and love of 
virtue — such as teach us the love of 
liberty and our country — obedience to 
her laws — detestation of tyranny an^l 
oppression, and hatred of anarchy and 
licentiousness. 

9th. That the quarterly visitations 
to the school shall be the third Mon- 
days in the months called February, 
May, August and November. The 
premiums shall be proposed at one of 
the meetings, and given at the imme- 
diate subsequent one. And it is also 
agreed, that one subject of a premium 
shall be the following : At each quar- 
terly examination the master shall be 
requested to report to the Trustees 
which of his pupils has been the most 
distinguished for his or her moral and 
orderly and decent behavior, upon 
which such pupils so reported, shall be 
entitled to the premium to be named 
by the Trustees." 



■]4G 



HISTORY OF CIIESTEK. 



For the following exceedingly valua- 
ble and interesting sketch of the old 
brick school-house at Chester, and the 
public schools instituted in that dis- 
trict, under the provisions of the 
amended Constitution of the Com- 
monwealth of 1838, and the Acts of 
June 13, 1836, and May 8, 1854, I am 
indebted to William B. Broomall, Esq., 
a member of the Ear of Delaware 
County, and one of the School Direc- 
tors. Mr. Broomall says : 

"The rapid strides which Chester has made 
in her material advancement during the past 
twenty-five years, are recorded in the progress 
made Ijy her public schools. The considera- 
tion of the rise and progress of our public 
schools presents an interesting subject to the 
antiquary. Did any of our citizens ever have 
tile curiosity to examine the date upon the old 
school building on Welsh Street ? If so, they 
will have seen in large black figures upon 
the gable end, 1 770. The building has under- 
gone many changes and repairs, but the date 
of its erection still remains recorded in figures 
manufactured in England. The bricks out of 
which the old building is constructed are the 
English brick, laid, in bricklayers' parlance, 
in headers and stretchers, the ends of the 
lieaders being burnt black, so as to present a 
checkered appearance. It is witli the Ijlack 
ends of the headers that the large figures 1770 
were constructed. Think of it! over a hun- 
dred years old, and six years l^efore the Decla- 
ration of Independence ! Built out of old Eng- 
land's soil, dried by an English sun, the first 
six yeai-s of its existence was devoted to in- 
culcating in the young minds of those days, 
the divine right of his royal highness George 
III. The King can do no wrong, was then 
orthodoxy, however heterodoxical the saying 
is now. 

What a curious subject for contemplation is 
, presented to the imagination, by thin]<ing of 
the long procession of boys and girls who 
have gone to school in this old building dur- 
ing the past hundred years. What oddities 
in customs and dress would l)e exhibited by 
such an array. 

This building was enlarged by the addition 
of another to it of almost tlie same size on the 



north side, probably about thirty or forty years 
ago.* But down to that time the old building 
afforded accommodations amply sufficient. 

The public records of the county would in- 
dicate that the old building was built on the 
ground at Fifth and Welsh Streets, on the 
sufferance of the owner, who at that time was 
Grace Lloyd, widow of David Lloyd.f Prior 
to 1808, the school lot is included with the 
adjoining lands, in the conveyances of the sur 
rounding property. The first mention of it 
as a separate lot is in a deed of Daniel Ilitner 
to Phcebe Pemberton Un- the adjoining lands, 
in that year. 

The old rooms, with low ceilings and an- 
cient architecture, take one back into the musty 
memories of his boyhood, and the school-room 
odors which still cling to the rooms, associate 
themselves with many memories of boyhood 
recollections. How well we remember a boy- 
ish superstition which found ready believers 
among the youth of twenty years ago, that the 
cellar was inhabited by an evil spirit, a kaka- 
demon, with whom the teacher held daily 
conference, and from whom he drew the re- 
sources of terror, with which he was invested 
by their boyish eyes. No punishment had 
more influence to deter evil doers than an im- 
prisonment in the cellar, and a journey there 
for coal was invested with all the difficulties 
of an Argonautic expedition. 

Priov to the enactment of the public school 
law, the duties of administering education 
was entrusted to a committee of the town, 
who had charge of the school teachers, and 
who were the nominal supervisors of the sub- 
jects to be taught, the method of teaching, and 
the charges to be exacted from the parents of 
the pupils, for the compensation of the Domi- 
nie. All other expenses were defrayed liy 



* Rev. John Thompson and Thomas M. 
Peirce, (son of Caleb,) the late candidate for 
City Treasurer of Philadelphia, both Chester 
boys once, agree in fixing the date of the ad- 
dition to the old brick school-house, as having 
been made in the year 1842. There is no 
foundation for the tradition that imported 
bricks wei^e used to build the old school- 
house, or any other building in Chester in the 
18th century. 

J Mr. Broomall, must mean the executors 
of Grace Lloyd, for that lady at the date of 
the erection of the old school-house, had been 
dead ten years ; however, we have seen that 
this is an error. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



847 



public subscription. All prior to about 1853, 
belongs to the prehistoric times. It is only 
since that time that any records were found 
to exist. 

In 1853, the Directors, who were Davis B. 
Stacey, George W. Moore, Robert R. Dutton, 
Jas. Campbell, Robert E. Hannum and Isaac 
E. Cochran, began to make provision for in- 
creased accommodations, and purchased from 
Martha Smith for $900, a lot between Frank- 
lin Street and Concord Avenue, in South 
Ward, north of Third Street. They imme- 
diately set about the erection of a building 
thereon, containing four rooms and accommo- 
dation for about 200 pupils. This building 
was subsequently enlarged by the erection of 
a contiguous back building, containing three 
rooms, now reduced to two, and accommodat- 
ing about 100 scholars. In 1858, a lot on 
'Eleventh Street, at the corner of Madison 
Street, was purchased of John Larkin, Jr., at 
a cost of $565, and a one-story brick building 
erected thereon, accommodating about 200 
pupils. 

In i860, the number of schools in Chester 
were ten, employing four male teachers and 
seven female teachers, at an average salary 
for the former of ^36.25, and for the latter of 
$27.14. The Directors then were Frederick 
J. Hinkson, Stephen Cloud, Alexander M. 
Wright, Dr. Charles J. Morton, Samuel Shaw, 
and William Hinkson. 

The value of the real estate belonging to 
the District, was estimated at )<5 12,000. 

In 1865, the School Directors were John O. 
Deshong, Charles W. Deans, Elwood Harvey, 
M. D., Caleb Emlen, Frederick J. Hinkson, 
and Alexander M. Wright. 

The number of schools fifteen. The amount 
of money raised for school purposes, about 
$10,000. In 1866, the Board was changed 
by the withdrawal of Davis, Hinkson and 
Wright, and their places were filled by Abra- 
ham R. Perkins, Samuel Eccles, Jr., and 
Henry L. Donaldson. The amount of money 
raised this year, was about $11,000. 

The school accommodations having become 
deficient, additional rooms were rented in 
Southward. In 1867, the places of Deshong 
and Perkins were filled by Stephen C. Hall 
and Alfred Taylor, and the new school build- 
ing at the south-east corner of Fifth and Welsh 
Streets was commenced, which was finished in 
the following year, at a cost of about $8,500. 



I In 1868, Thomas Appleby and John H. Bar- 
i ton filled the places of Taylor and Harvey. 
The number of schools was seventeen, and 
; the average salaries paid to teachers $40 per 
month. Amount of money raised about $14,- 
000. On Oct. 2, 1868, the number of scholars 
was 956. In 1869, the Chester schools were 
organized into a separate District, independent 
of the county. A. A. Meader, was elected 
Superintendent, at a salary of $300 per annum. 
In this year the place of Eccles was filled by 
William B. Broomall, and three additional 
Directors were elected, Simeon Cotton, Joseph 
Kenworlhy and John C. Price. The moneys 
raised this year were about $23,000. The 
new school building on Morton Avenue, in 
North Ward, was built, containing accommo- 
dations for about 200 pupils, and the Academy 
building in South Ward was purchased, con- 
taining about the same accommodations. 

In 1870, Hall and Barton having retired, 
Samuel H. Seeds and Dr. Elwood Harvey 
filled their places. Moneys raised this year 
were about $18,000. A new building for 
colored scholars was built in South Ward, 
containing accommodations for aljout 200 
pupils. 

In 1 87 1, the school district became involved 
with the corporate authorities of the city, in a 
lawsuit, to determine the liability of the School 
Boards to pay municipal liens for paving the 
roadways in front of the school property. The 
decision of the Court was against the liability. 
John C. Price withdrew from the Board and 
John Fountain filled his place. The amount 
of money raised was $18,000. The Superin- 
tendent's salary was increased to $500 per 
annum. In 1872, a High School department 
was established." 

The friends and descendants of many 
of our legislators and others have, time 
and again, claimed for their respective 
friends, relatives or ancestors, the title 
of the " Father of our Public School 
System." I am inclined to believe 
that the honor belongs to the late 
Thaddeus Stevens, and for this rea- 
son : In an obituary of the death of 
my father in the Republican, of Oct. 
24, 1862, "J. P. C." /. e., John P. 
Crozer, states that, "in i826-'27, 



348 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



Mr. Martin represented Delaware coun- 
ty in the State Legislature. The two 
leading questions of these sessions 
were, the State internal improvement 
by canal, and a system of common 
schools for the Commonwealth, in 
both of which he took an active in- 
terest." 

My father told me that he drew a 
bill while in the Legislature, to intro- 
duce the public school system into this 
State, at the request of Mr. Stevens, 
who presented it, and it finally after- 
wards became a law through Mr. Ste- 
vens' exertions, and to Mr. Stevens he 
often gave, in speaking of the public 
schools, the honor of being the origi- 
nator in Pennsylvania. No doubt the 
records of our Legislature will show 
that Mr. Stevens moved in the matter 
l)ri()r to 1826; I have no doubt he 
did. Dr. George Smith and Dr. Sam- 
uel Anderson, were both very active 
in the matter in the Legislature prior 
to 1 833-' 34, which is the date fixed to 
give the credit of our common school 
system to the late Samuel Breck. 

It must not be understood that Mr. 
Stevens was the originator of the sys- 
tem of the public schools ; the project 
was mooted before his day. By the 
Constitution of 1776, chapter 2, .sec- 
tion 44, it is declared, that "a school 
or schools shall be established in each 
county by the Legislature, for the con- 
venient instruction of youth, with such 
salaries to the masters, paid by the 
publick, as may enable them to in- 
struct youth at low prices, and all 
useful learning shall be duly encour- 
aged and promoted in one or more 
universities." And by the first sec- 
tion of the seventh article of the Con- 
stitution of 1789, it is directed that 
" the legislature shall, as soon as con- 
veniently may be, provide by law for 



j the establishment of schools through- 
out the State, in such manner that the 
poor may be taught gratis." In the 
Aurora, of Dec. 31, 1794, there is a 
long article urging the establishment 
of public seminaries of learning, sign- 
ed " Delaware County," written by 
Dr. William Martin, whose manuscripts 
on the subject are before me. 

In making searches among the re- 
cords at West Chester, for the purpose 
of endeavoring to trace the title of the 
lot at the south-east corner of Fifth 
and Welsh Streets, on which the an- 
cient school-house of Chester stands, 
my friend, Franklin A. Dick, who 
kindly undertook to look up the title, 
found two ancient deeds of trust on 
record, but none other. By the deeds 
it will appear, that previous to the erec- 
tion of the school-house on Welsh 
Street, two lots were donated on Front 
Street, now Edgmont Avenue, south 
of Fourth Street, on the east side 
of the avenue, for school purposes, but 
as the schools located thereon were 
to be under the direction of trustees, 
wlio should be in unity with the Qua- 
kers, or for some other reason unknown, 
no school-houses were ever erected on 
the lots. The southern lot is now oc- 
cupied by the dwelling of Mr. Gceltz, 
the northern one by a carpenter shop. 
Some years ago, upon the separation 
of the Orthodox and Hicksite Friends 
of Chester, these lots passed into the 
control of the latter branch, who find- 
ing that there was no necessity for the 
erection of a school-house on the lots 
under the conditions of the trusts, now 
that the public school system was in 
operation, they decided to sell them 
and apply the proceeds to Swarthmore 
College for educational purposes. An 
Act of Assembly was accordingly ob- 
tained, authorizing the sale of the lots, 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



349 



and they were afterwards disposed of 
to Frederick J. Hinkson. 

The first of t-he two deeds above re- 
ferred to, will be found in Deed Book 
L, P- 370, proved May 18, 1758, be- 
fore Joseph Hoskins, Esq., Chief Bur- 
gess of Chester, one of his Majesty's 
Justices of the Peace, by Aubrey Se- 
van, inn-holder, John Salkeld, of the 
township of Chester, maltster, Jacob 
Howel, of the Borough of Chester, 
tanner, Thomas Cummings, cord- 
wainer, and Thomas Morgan, tailor ;' 
and recites conveyance to them by 
John Baldwin, of Chester, merchant, 
of August 25th and 26th, of "a cer- 
tain lott or parcell of land situate in 
the said Borough of Chester, con- 
taining in breadth forty feet and in 
length one hundred and twenty feet, 
bounded Westward with Front street, 
Northward with another lott of the 
said John Baldwin, Eastward with the 
lotts late of John Minshall, but now 
of Stephen Cole, and Southward with 
the lotts late of William Pickle, but 
now of William Preston," &c. * * 
"with the intent that a school-house 
should be erected and built upon the 
said lott in the said township of Ches- 
ter, * * with all convenient speed 
at the public charge of the people 
called Quakers, in Chester, who shaH 
cause a fair well built school-house 
to be erected upon the said lott * * 
which shall be for the use and service 
of the people called Quakers in Ches- 
ter, and others in the said township 
forever, and in case of the removal out 
of the township, or decease of any of 
the said parties, the survivors shall, at 
the request of the Members of the Pre- 
parative Meeting for the time being at 
Chester, make such Deed as may be 
needful for the further Declaration of 
the Uses, in such manner as the Mem- 



bers of said Preparative Meeting or so 
many of them as shall be approved of 
and allowed to be employed and con- 
cerned in the Discipline and affairs 
of the said Meeting, may request." 
Me77iorandmn before delivering by 
appointment of John Baldwin. ' ' The 
nomination of a Schoolmaster, from 
time to time, and at all times hereafter, 
is to be in the Members of the Prepa- 
parative Meeting at Chester, and that 
no other person presume to teach in 
said school-house without such nomi- 
nation and appointment. ' ' Date, Au- 
gust 6, 1 73 1. Witnesses to deed, 
Richard Barry and Aubrey Bevan. 

The other deed, recorded in Deed 
Book M, p. 13; dated Dec. 29, 1759, 
proved 20 Jan., 1761. Witnesses, Jo- 
seph Parker and Henry Hale Graham. 
Before Joseph Parker one of the Jus- 
tices of the Peace, came Henry Hale 
Graham & Elisha Price ; Declaration 
of Trust by Joseph Hoskins, yeoman ; 
Daniel Sharpless, yeoman ; Joseph Ash- 
bridge, j^eoman; Caleb Harrison, Jr., 
yeoman; William Swaffer, saddletree 
maker; and John Salkeld, Jr., yeo- 
man ; and recites conveyance to them 
by Jacob Howell and Thomas Cum- 
mings, dated the 26th of this Dec'r, of 
a lot in the Borough of Chester, con- 
taining in breadth 40 feet, in length 
1 20 feet, bounded West hy Front %\.xtQX, 
Northward with a lot of John Baldwin, 
but now of David Cowpland, Eastward 
with the lots formerly of John Minshall, 
but now of the Heirs of Stephen Cole, 
and Southward with the lots formerly 
of William Pickle, lately of Wm. Pres- 
ton, but now of Dennis McLochlin. 
* * "In trust for the inhabitants 
of the Township of Chester, by the 
special nomination and appointment 
of the Preparative Meeting of the peo- 
ple called Quakers in said township. 



;;5i) 



iiisTOKY OF ciij:stek. 



to erect a school hoiihc thcreoiT at the 
public charge of the Quakers, for the 
use of the Quakers and others, the in- 
habitants of said Township, * * 
provided always, that no School- 
master or Tutor shall at any time here- 
after presume to teach or instruct in 
the said school-house, unless such Mas- 
ter or Tutor be first allowed and ad- 
mitted so to do, by the Members of 
the Preparative Meeting of the said 
people called Quakers at Chester. 
* * * provided that neither we 
nor any other, or our successors as 
Trustees, who shall be declared by 
the Members of the Monthly Meeting 
of Chester, held at Providence Meet- 
ing House for the time being, to be 
out of unity with them, shall be capa- 
ble to execute this Trust." 

At the N. E. cor. of Graham Street 
and Edgmont Avenue, stands a small 
brick building before referred to, as 
having been formerly the office of 
Lieut. Waite. Nathaniel Rulon, says 
that a Miss Palmer formerly taught an 
" Infant School " therein, and that he 
went to school there when quite young. 

Old Front Street, now called Edg- 
mont Avenue, is .undoubtedly the most 
ancient thoroughfare in Chester. The 
water courses were the highways before 
roads were common, and this street 
fronting the creek, was very naturally 
called Front Street. A few years ago 
many more old buildings stood in this 
street than at present. The first meet- 
ing-house of Friends, called errone- 
ously, the "Assembly House," has 
been torn down ; to the south of its 
site on the west side, are still remain- 
ing several old structures, no doubt 
over 150 years old. Opposite them, 
the former residence of Captain Thom- 
as Robinson and William Graham's old 
flwelling at theS. E. cor. of From and 



Graham Sts. 'I'he old " Bake House" 
and " (iranaries," stood on the west 
side of old Front St., at the S. W. cor. 
of Front and Filbert Sts., and facing 
the creek and P>ont St. ; both these 
buildings were erected by Jasper Yeates 
previous to 1700. Opposite the site 
of these old structures which have dis- 
appeared, and on the east side of Front 
Street, there are some houses that look 
very antique, no doubt they were among 
the first brick erections in Chester. 

The Directory, p. 35 , says : " Fi Ibert 
Street, and the one between it and the 
riv-er, were laid out previous to 1690. 
The now unknown street was eaten 
away by the tides of the river, and 
its site is covered by reeds and mud." 
The deed of David Lloyd to Jasper 
Yeates for the "Green," dated Sept. 
22d, 1703, speaks of the unknown 
street of the Directory as New Street, 
which must have - occupied about the 
position of the present Front Street. 
Formerly all along the Pennsylvania 
shore the land was being washed away, 
especially at the Lazaretto ; at Tinicum 
this is very apparent, as a stone wall 
has been erected to protect the en- 
croachments of the river. The Swedes' 
Church and graveyard formerly there 
and mentioned by Acrelius, have long 
ago disappeared ; it is said, washed 
away. See Ante, p. 89. 

Since writing the above I came across 
a copy of the Tnwcllers' Directory, 
Philadelphia, 1802, p. 37, which says 

" Chester, the county town, is 15 miles frohi 
Philadelphia, and situated between two creeks, 
Chester and Ridley, on the west side of the 
Delaware. It was incorporated in Dec, 1795, 
and is governed by two burgessess, one high 
constable, one town clerk and three assistants. 
The limits of this Borough extend two miles 
from the shore westward. It contains a Court 
House, a Jail, an Episcopal church, a Friends' 
mooting house, a market house and a loni:; 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



351 



brick school-house. The first dwelling house 
in Pennsylvania was built on the site of this 
town ; and the first Colonial Assembly for the 
Province was convened at this place, on the 
4th day of December, 1 682. A part of the 
old wall of the room remains. The bed of 
the river has been evidently diminished by 
the marshy lands having been banked and 
dykes cut, which have converted them into 
rich and valuable meadows. This town is 
much resorted to by companies from Phila- 
delphia, in the spring and summer seasons." 

All along the banks of the Delaware 
we find large tracts of land gained from 
the tipper cotmtry by the action of the 
rains and the river's tide, nowhere any 
lost ; and all as a natural consequence 
of clearing the land of trees, which 
has decreased the volume of water in 
all our large streams, and by the cul- 
tivation of the soil, large quantities of 
which is washed by every heavy rain 
into the streams and the river, increas- 
ing everyday the size of the islands and 
mud flats outside of the meadow lands 
along the Delaware. Having passed 
many summers in the Lehigh Valley, 
where the hills are mostly covered with 
forest trees, I have noticed more than 
I would otherwise have done the ab- 
sence of trees in the vicinity of Ches- 
ter. It is a great mistake to keep even 
cultivated fields so bare of shade. It 
lets the sun bake the soil dry and hard ; 
but worse than that, it dries up the 
springs of water, and the small streams 
that ought to moisten the ground and 
quench the thirst of cattle, disappear 
altogether. Plant trees around your 
spring-houses. 

The width of the river Delaware at 
Chester, has been differently given by 
several authors, whose statements have 
been copied herein, so it may be as 
well to state, that by McClure's sur- 
vey, the width of the river at Chester 
is 6,600 feet, and the mean depth is 



seventeen feet six inches. Hazard'' s 
Register, i vol. 286. 

XXXVII. 

One of the most destructive freshets 
or floods that ever occurred in the 
streams of Delaware County, took place 
on the 5th of August, 1843, ^^^ "^^^^ 
called the "Lammas Flood." It did 
immense damage. At Chester at 
about half-past five o'clock, P. M., it 
rained very hard for about half an hour ; 
but the most remarkable circumstance 
connected with the storm, was the sud- 
den and unexpected rise of the water 
in all of the streams ; people said it 
came down the creek in a wave several 
feet high ; some said there was a suc- 
cession of waves. At Chester the creek 
rose a foot a minute ; some .say six feet 
in five minutes. Its greatest height at 
Chester was 23 feet above the usual 
high water mark. The railroad bridge, 
and the Chester Creek chain suspen- 
sion bridge at Third street, were both 
swept away.* The loss to the county 
in bridges was about $25,000, and the 
damage to the mills and other property 
was estimated at $190,000, and count- 
ing the loss to orchards, trees, &c., by 
the wind, the total private and public 
loss was about $250,000. See p. 38 of 
a Pamphlet with a Map, printed in 
1844, being a "Report of the Delaware 
County Institute of Science on the great 
rain storm and flood of Aug. 5, 1843." 
There had been previous destructive 
floods in 1795, 1822 and 1839, but 

*It will be observed that I was in error at 
page 58, in presuming that perhaps the present 
bridge was an alteration of the bridge erected 
in pursuance of the act of 1788. The present 
structure was built in the fall of 1843, to take 
the place of the one swept away by the flood, 
causing a loss to the county of ^2,150; and it 
has been altered from time to time to meet the 
requirements of the growing City of Chester. 



352 



UISTORY OF CHESTER. 



none so severe as the one of 1843. ^^^^^ 
pamphlet referred to was presented to 
nie by my old friend Mark Warne of 
Chester, who was killed by the bow- 
sprit of a vessel coming in collision with 
a steamboat in which he was a passen- 
ger. At the time of the accident he 
was standing in the steamboat's barber- 
shop, where he was killed by the col- 
lision. He was the brother-in-law of 
Y. S. Walter of T/ie Delaware County 
Republican, and was a compositor on 
that paper. He was a Philadelphian 
by birth, his parents then residing at 
the N. E. cor. of 4th and Spruce Sts. 
From the pamphlet p. 31, 1 copy the 
account of the damage done to private 
property by the flood, in the Borough 
of Chester, which was considerable : 

" Samuel Lytle had a fine row of Ijaskct wil- 
lows uprooted and carried away, also his crane 
for loading large stone from his quarries. Cap- 
tain Pearson's wharf was partly carried away, 
as was also that belonging to the estate of Cap' 
tain John Hart. J. P. & W. Eyre had their 
storehouse injured, their crane carried away, 
and about 200 tons of coal swept from their 
wharf. William Eyre, Jr., had his stock of 
lumber floated off, and his new wharf greatly- 
injured. The store of Jesse M. Eyre was badly 
flooded. William Kerlin had his stone kitchen 
and several out-buildings, with their contents, 
carried away, the main building injured, and 
the furniture in the basement destroyed. Wil- 
liam Kerlin, Jr., had a frame house carried off 
and entirely destroyed, as was also the slaugh- 
ter house of William McCaffery, deceased. 
William Brobson's tan-yard was much injured, 
his lime house was carried off, and his loss in 
hides and bark was veiy considerable. Wil- 
liam Benton, who occupied the house of Wil- 
liam Kerlin, Jr., had all his household goods, 
dearborn, cart, &c., carried off. Mrs. Mary 
Engle's sheds and stables, occupied by Maurice 
W. Deshong, were much damaged. The pat- 
tern house connected with the foundry of Jacob 
G. Kitts, was carried away, together with nearly 
all his whole stock of valuable patterns." 

On pp. 37 and 38, is a table of indi- 



vidual losses on Chester Creek and its 

branches as follows: 

John Edwards' estate, 

James M. Willcox, . 

Thomas Thatcher, . 

David Green, 

Humphrey Yearsley, 

Joseph Pennell, 

Daniel Lamott & Son, 

Hannah S. Hill, . 

Caleb Brinton, 

Matthew Ash, 

C. W. Sharpless, Esq., 

Joseph M. Trimble, 

Samuel F. Peters, . 

James S. Tyson, . 

John P. Crozer, 

Samuel Riddle, 

Richard S. Smith, . 

George Peterson, . 

John Rhoads, 

James Dixon, 

J. & I. P. Dutton, 

Richard Flower, 

William G. Flower, 

Samuel Lytle, 

Capt. Pearson, 

William McCafferty, 

Capt. John Hart, . 

J. P. & W. Eyre, . 

William Eyre, Jr., 

Jesse M. Eyre, 

William Kerlin, 

William Kerlin, Jr., 

Mary Engle, . 

William Brobson, . 

William Benton, . 

Jacob G. Kitts, 

Other persons. 

Crops, fences, &c., 



Total loss on Chester Cr., $104,775 

On the 20th of July, 1824, there was 
a violent storm of rain and hail at Ches- 
ter ; see Hazard's Register, 1 1 vol. 
386, and on Sunday, May 8, 1870, one 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



353 



of the most destructive and violent hail 
storms, preceded by vivid lightning 
and heavy thunder, occurred that ever 
visited this section of the country. It 
took place at i^ o'clock, P. M., and 
lasted with one slight intermission of 
a few minutes, until after 2 o'clock. 
Two storms, one from the southeast and 
the other from the northwest, met each 
other near Woodbury, in New Jersey, 
and crossed the river in the form of a 
whirlwind, tearing up trees, and de- 
stroying houses and barns. It was 
about half a mile wide, going towards 
the northeast, crossing the City of 
Philadelphia, from whence I observed 
it, diagonally. In its course the storm 
was frightful ; immense quantities of 
hail stones fell, covering the ground ; 
some of the largest measured six inches 
in circumference ; I neglected to weigh 
any of them, but my neighbors said some 
weighed 3 and 4 ounces: the largest 
were shaped precisely like a tomato, a 
piece of transparent ice in the centre 
surrounded by white balls of hail; in 
innumerable numbers were solid white 
balls of hail the size of boys' marbles, 
called " white alleys. " All exposed 
glass windows to the north and west 
were utterly destroyed. The course of 
the storm was not with the wind appar- 
ently. About an hour and a half after 
it had passed over, it returned in its 
course, going back to the southwest, 
accompanied with rain, but its force 
was materially lessened. The day had 
been' quite warm before the storm, but 
pleasant, but no reason for such a freak 
in the weather was apparent. The 
damage done must have reached several 
hundred thousand dollars. The trees 
were stripped of their leaves and the 
ground was covered with hail, leaves 
and branches. No such hail storm was 
ever experienced before in this section 



of the country, within the memory of 
any living person. On the nth of Au- 
gust, of the same year, 1870, a heavy rain 
storm occurred in the vicinity of Ches- 
ter, nearly approaching in violence the 
storm of Aug. 5, 1843. The damage 
on the creeks of Delaware County, ex- 
ceeded ^250,000. 

From an old record book belonging 
to Hannah Button, of Sugartown, I 
extract the following items, viz: "A 
curyous observation appeared of the 
stars from about 3 to 6 o'clock in 
the morning, 11, 13, 1833. The river 
Delaware frozen over at Chester, with- 
out having snow, 1, 19, 1827, and broke 
up I, 28, 1827; broke up at Philadel- 
phia, 2 mo. 15th. Great snow storm 
I mo. 15 & 16, 1831. Great sleet 
2d mo. 16 & 17, 1835. High freshet 
in Chester Creek which took away part 
of the bridge over the creek, 3, 5, 1838. 
I mo. 26, 1839, the highest flood 
in Chester Creek that we ever knew, 
about I foot 9 inches higher than the 
one in 1795, taking away the bridge. 
8, 5,1843, great flood in Chester Creek ; 
it has taken away six houses, and drown- 
ed six people from Rockdale, taking 
away the mill, saw-mill and barn from 
Dutton's." 

On Nov. 22, 1845, the first decisive 
step was taken towards removing the 
Seat of Justice from Chester to a more 
central position in the county ; a public 
meeting of the citizens of the county 
being held that day, at the "Black 
Horse" tavern, in Middletown, in pur- 
suance of public notice, which adopted 
a preamble and resolutions favorable 
to the removal of the public buildings. 
The movement was opposed by the in- 
habitants of Chester, but it resulted in 
the passage of an act of assembly, ap- 
proved Mar. 3, 1847, authorizing the 
removal, if a majority of the people of 



854 



HISTORY OF.CHESTEK. 



the count}- should approve thereof by 
their votes at the next general election. 
Committees were formed on both sides, 
one to effect, the other to oppose the 
transfer. The Committee in opposi- 
tion were chiefly residents of Chester. 
It was composed of John M. Broom- 
all, Esq., John P. Crozer, Frederick 
J. Hinkson, George W. Bartram, Jesse 
Young, Hon. George G. Leiper, Joshua 
P. Eyre, John K. Zeilin, Esq., John 
Larkin, Jr., Edward Darlington, Esq., 
Samuel Edwards, Esq., and George 
Serrill of Darby, who issued an address 
pointing out the disadvantages of the 
removal, but without any effect ; for at 
the election held Oct. 12, 1847, ^ i^"*^- 
jority of 752 votes, decided the trans- 
fer of the Seat of Justice, which, after 
much opposition by injunction, &c., 
was at last effected, and Media was 
located and named as the new county 
seat. Chester has grown rapidly since, 
and has become a large and is a grow- 
ing city. 

It was alleged, feared and believed, 
at the time of the removal of the Seat 
of Justice to Media, that it would ruin 
the trade, growth and prosperity of 
Chester entirely, and that real estate 
would become reduced to a mere nomi- 
nal value ; but the results have not justi- 
fied the fears of the inhabitants of the 
town. The old jail was purchased and 
turned into a cotton factory, under the 
name of the "Henry Clay Mills." 
This enterprise brought new people in- 
to the town, and an increase of life and 
trade. Other manufactories soon fol- 
lowed the lead thus taken, and by a 
series of rapid strides, Chester has be- 
come a ])rosperous city, and is still in- 
creasing in size and importance; and 
as shijj building, to a great extent, has 
become added to its other industries, it 
bids fair to become a great manufactur- 



ing town. It would be curious to know 
the increased valueof property in Ches- 
ter from the time of the removal of the 
county seat, from the assessment list, 
but I have not the material to give the 
information. 

The following sketch of an old Ches- 
ter family of a by-gone generation, 
some of whose descendants still cling 
to the home of their ancestors, was fur- 
nished me by a descendant. 

"John Odenheimer, a former resi- 
dent of ' Old Chester,' came from May- 
ence on the Rhine to Philadelphia, prior 
to the middle of the last century. He 
became a dealer in flour, and lived at the 
corner of Fifth and Market Sts., in the 
latter city, with open grounds around 
his house, planted with trees and shrub- 
bery. He married Mary, daughter of 
John Henry Keppele. On Sept. 28, 
1 771, he bought from Joseph Mather, 
177 acres of land in Chester, lying 
along Ridley Creek. The deed recites 
one of the boundaries as 'The King's 
Highway.' Here he opened stone 
quarries within easy reach of tidewater. 
After the first visit of the yellow-fever to 
Philadelphia, he became a permanent 
resident of CHiester. His son John was 
Sheriff of Delaware County from 1798 
to 1801, and again from 1804 to 1807, 
and died in 181 6. His son Henry 
married a daughter of William Kerlin, 
of Revolutionary note. His daughter 
Mary married Peter Deshong, of Ches- 
ter, and his daughter Catharine mar- 
ried Thomas H. Brinton of Thornbury. 
Keppele often visited his son-in-law 
Odenheimer and his large family, at 
Chester. The customs of their native 
country were kept up. Hock wines 
sent them from the Rhine, were in 
daily use ; while a large silver punch- 
bowl filled to the brim, with goblets 
and ladle, stood on a table for visitors 



HISTORY or CII?]STEK. 



355 



making morning calls. Gen. Washing- 
ton during his Presidential term, 1789 
to 1 79 7 , was accustomed to pass through 
Chester on his way to Congress. His 
journeys were recollected and spoken 
of by some of the Odenheimer family 
up to a recent period. They were at- 
tended with some state. A carriage 
with four horses and outriders contain- 
ed his family, the general followed, 
mounted on a fine horse. He was a 
large man, with a grave, manly counte- 
nance, and was treated by the crowd 
collected to see him, with almost rever- 
ential respect. Odenheimer died in 
Chester in 1807, above the age of four- 
score. His wife died in 1793. Both 
were buried in the grounds of the old 
Lutheran church of St. Michael's, cor- 
ner of Fifth and Cherry streets, Phila- 
delphia. Most of his descendants be- 
came Episcopalians. His son Henry, 
in. Sarah, dau. of William Kerlin, and 
died at Chester in 1794, leaving two 
children, John W. and William Henry 
Odenheimer. The first becaiiie a mer- 
chant in Philadelphia, and after re- 
tiring from business, lived at Burling- 
ton, N. J., where he died July 4, 1876, 
in his 87th year. He was the father 
of the Right Reverend William H. 
Odenheimer, Bishop of New Jersey. 
Keppele was born near Heilbronn, 
in Wurtemberg, in 1716. He was a 
wine merchant in Philadelphia, and 
lived on the south side of Market be- 
low Third street. He had open grounds 
around his house, planted with plum 
and pear trees. These kinds of fruit 
trees were very plentiful in his native 
country. He was one of the founders 
of St. Michael's, the mother of the 
Lutheran Churches in Philadelphia. 
This Church, built in 1743, was hip- 
roofed, ornamented with glazed bricks, 
with large doors and windows. Its 

46 



records reach back to 1733- The 
Rev. Dr. Helmuth, one of its pas- 
tors, was also a son-in-law of Keppele. 
His other sons-in-law were Steinmetz, 
Kuhn and Zantzinger. His grand- 
son, Michael Keppele, became Mayor 
of Philadelphia in 181 1. One of his 
daughters married James C. Biddle, 
a member of the State Constitutional 
Convention of 1837 ; another married 
the late Hon. William M. Meredith, 
the distinguished lawyer, and late 
Secretary of the U. S. Treasury, who 
died in 1873, while presiding over the 
Constitutional Convention. 

Mary Deshong died at Chester, Dec. 
29, 1869, in the 90th year of her age, 
preceding by a year her friends Mrs. 
Anderson and Mrs. Engle, who at- 
tained a still greater age. These three 
ladies were born in Chester, or near it, 
and became its "oldest inhabitants," 
and were the links between the present 
and a remote Chester generation, noted 
for its amiable manners and warm- 
hearted hospitality. 

The present representative of John 
Odenheimer at Chester, is John Oden- 
heimer Deshong, whose ample domain 
includes his grandfather's quarries. 
Twenty acres of the old Odenheimer 
farm are the site of Col. Hyatt's Mili- 
tary Acadamy. " 

John O. Deshong does not own any 
part of the old Odenheimer farm, call- 
ed "Ridley," late the property of 
Spencer Mcllvain, that I am aware of. 
His quarries are on Crum Creek, called 
" The Island Field," late the property 
of John F. Hill, deceased. It will be 
noticed that in old times nearly each 
plantation had its distinctive name. I 
like the idea very much ; it is an old 
English custom. The property which 
Mr. Odenheimer purchased of Joseph 
Mather, is thus described in an adver- 



356 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



tist'iiiciit which will ])e found in the 
Piiinsylvania Gazetteer of Sept. 7, 
1769, as follows: "To be Lett or 
Sold. — A valuable Plantation, well- 
known by the name of Ridley, being 
so called from its situation on Ridley 
Creek, a mile distant from the town of 
Chester, and divided by the public road 
leading from thence to Philadelphia. 
The western part or division contains 
1 30 acres, one half cleared, and the other 
half well timbered. Eastward of the 
public road aforesaid, there are about 
50 acres of extraordinary upland and 
marsh meadow, w'hereon are erected a 
dwelling house, spring-house, barn and 
stable." 

The improvements mentioned are 
not there now. They were small affairs. 
The spring-house and barn were de- 
molished by falling stones from heavy 
blasts. The old quarry hole first work- 
ed by Odenheimer, is now full of water, 
and excellent cat-fish, sun-fish and eels 
can be caught there. The piece of 
' 'extraordinary upland" was celebrated 
once for the immense quantities of 
mushrooms that grew there. It was 
then, say 25 years ago, used as a pastur- 
age for cattle, and still retains evidences 
of its being all Mr. Mather claims for 
it, as good land. After the death of 
John Odenheimer, (the younger), the 
Sheriff, his heirs sold the estate called 
"Ridley," to Jeremiah Mcllvain. 

The following is an extract of the 
brief of title made on the occasion of 
the recent sale of the property called 
by Mr. Mather, " Ridley," by Spencer 
Mcllvain to William Simpson of Mana- 
yunk : 

"1771, Sept. 28, Deed of Joseph 
Mather in fee for 177 acres, situate in 
the Borough of Chester, &c., called 
'Messuage, Tenement, Plantation & 
Tract of Land,' ack'd Oct. i, 1771, 



recorded June 9, 1868, deed book W, 
No. 2, page 27, &c. 

"Recited in next Deed Poll, John 
Odenheimer, Sr., lately died intestate, 
seized of same, leaving issue seven chil- 
dren to survive him. 

"1808, Mar. 7, deed, Margaretta 
Kerlin, Thomas H. Brinton, Catharine 
G., his wife, Keppele Odenheimer, 
Peter Deshong, Mary his wife, and Wil- 
liam Odenheimer, to their brother John 
Odenheimer in fee for same. 

"Recited— The said John Oden- 
heimer, (the younger), died intestate, 
and the same descended and vested 
equally among his legal representatives 
to wit : His brother William Oden- 
heimer, his nephew John Odenheimer, 
and his three sisters, Margaret Kerlin, 
Catharine G. Brinton and Mary De- 
shong. 

" 181 7, May 8, deed, William Oden- 
heimer, John Odenheimer, and Hen- 
rietta his wife; Margaretta Kerlin, 
widows Thomas H. Brinton, Catharine 
G. his wife, Peter Deshong and Mary 
his wnfe, to Jeremiah Mcllvain for 
the same; recorded in deed book M, 
page 712, &c. 

"As to the Bull-Cod, 1844, June 8, 
deed Robert P. Crosby, Charles W. 
Raborg and Catharine his wife, Isaac 
E. Engle and Sarah Ann his wife, and 
Mary Crosby to Spencer Mcllvain, re- 
corded in deed book N, p. 306." 

The above was kindly furnished me 
by Edw. C. Diehl, Esq., son-in-law of 
Spencer Mcllvain. Mr. Diehl is the 
descendant of a former well-known 
resident of Tinicum, an active and 
intelligent man of business in his day, 
Nicholas Diehl, a German, the owner 
of a considerable tract of land in the 
vicinity of the Lazaretto. He was the 
g. grandfather of Thomas J. and Ed- 
ward C. Diehl, Escjs., both members 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



357 



of the Philadelphia Bar. Nicholas 
Diehl lived in the fine old country man- 
sion adjacent to the Lazaretto station, 
on the west side of the old line of the 
Philadelphia, Wilmington and Balti- 
more Railroad. His son Thomas Diehl, 
was a tea merchant at Front and Chest- 
nut streets, Philadelphia, and his son 
William J. Diehl, was the father of Ed- 
ward C. and Thomas J. Nicholas 
Diehl died in 1828, at an extreme old 
age. 

In this connection, Aubrey H. Smith, 
Esq., says: His grandfather William, 
lived near the Lazaretto, in a big house 
built of white cedar or cypress logs, 
but removed to the present stone 
mansion-house before the Revolution, 
where the family were much annoyed 
by foraging parties from the British 
men-of-war lying in the river ; and that 
Gov. Printz's house, the Swedish 
church and grave-yard, were just east 
of the old tavern that stands on the 
bluff below the Lazaretto. Mr. Mil- 
ler's house is given as the former site 
of Printz Hall. The grave-yard has 
undoubtedly been washed away by the 
encroachments of the river. When 
his father, Thos. Smith, late member 
of Congress, was a boy, he and his lit- 
tle sister were wandering along the 
beach in front of the bluff, which was 
then sandy, and seeing an old piece of 
decayed wood sticking out of the bluff, 
he, child-like, drew it out of the soft 
soil, when down at their feet rolled a 
scull, scaring them so that they did not 
stop running until safe at home. Al- 
though tradition fixes the site of Printz 
Hall on the bluff yet remaining, Mr. 
Smith thinks its site and the church's 
also, have been washed away. The 
bluff is now protected by a stone wall. 

In front of the old log house where 
liis grandfather resided, there was a 



wharf for boats. One night a boat's 
crew from a British ship landed there, 
and leaving a soldier to stand guard 
over the boat, the rest went out on a 
marauding expedition into the coun- 
try, but were chased back to their boat 
by the country people, and the sentinel 
was shot. His ghost on the night of 
the anniversary of his being killed, yet 
walks post over an imaginary boat at the 
landing dressed in Hessian uniform as 
of old, with his musket at a carry. If 
I knew the precise date of this annual 
visitation, I would give it, so my readers 
could go and see him at his next ap- 
pearance. 

Peter and Mary O. Deshong, of 
Chester, had issue, John O., Maurice 
W. and Louisa only, I believe. John 
O. Deshong, married Emeline, daugh- 
ter of Dr. Job H. Terrill, and has the 
following children : Albert, John O., 
Jr., Clarence, Mary and Louisa. John 
O. Deshong purchased the place on 
Chester Creek, on Edgmont Avenue, 
formerly owned by Dr. William Gray, 
and erected upon it the fine residence 
in which he now lives. The house is 
hidden from view by a heavy grove 
of trees planted around it. Maurice 
W. Deshong married, and had issue, 
Maurice W., Jr., Rachel, Emma and 
Henry O. Deshong. The Deshong' s 
are of French descent, and the proper 
name of Peter, the grandfather, of Re- 
volutionary note in Philadelphia, was 
Pierre Deshong. There are descen- 
dants of Peter living in Wilkes-Barre, 
although they do not bear the name. 

The writer of the sketch of the Oden- 
heimer family says further: "My au- 
thority for saying there were plum trees 
on old Mr. Keppele's ground, was 
Major Westcott, of Philadelphia, who 
was old enough to recollect when Con- 
gress sat in that city, and saw Washing- 



358 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



ton, Franklin, Jefferson and others 
there. Westcott was a captain in the 
French war, as it was termed, during 
the administration of the first Adams, 
in 1798. He was complicated with 
the Burr movement to conquer Mexico 
and detach a part of the Union, and 
set up a new Empire. He has been 
dead many years. He told me he clam- 
bered over a brick wall to get at the 
old German's plums, when he was a 
boy. He never admitted that Aaron 
Burr's projectshad any treason in them, 
or anything wrong." 

The following interesting sketch is 
from the pen of a former lady resident 
of Chester : " The Washington Hotel 
was owned and kept by William Ker- 
lin, and was one of the most prominent 
stage houses between Philadelphia and 
Baltimore. William Kerlin and his 
brother Matthias, were the sole pro- 
prietors and owners of the hotel pro- 
perty, and the property upon which 
the Court House stood, and the whole 
block around it, and which was sold to 
the county for a small sum to secure 
the Court House or Seat of Justice 
against removal, the proviso or con- 
ditions being, that should the seat of 
justice be removed from Chester, the 
property was to revert to the heirs, but 
by some error this condition was omit- 
ted in the deed, and the family have 
been deprived of their just rights. The 
Messrs. Kerlin were among the most 
wealthy citizens. The Washington 
Hotel and the Columbia Hotel owned 
by Capt. Wm. iVnderson, the successor 
to Mrs. Withey, had the largest share 
of custom, especially on Sundays, they 
being the resort of the most fashiona- 
ble people from Philadelphia, when 
hundreds of carriages filled every ave- 
nue about the two hotels. General 
Washington made his home at Mr. 



Kerlin's in i)assing through Chester, 
and the mahogany chairs used by him 
and always kept in his room, are in the 
family and kept as sacred relics. Mr. 
Kerlin's g. grand-son, Bishop Oden- 
heimer of New Jersey, son of John W. 
Odenheimer, has one of the arm chairs. 
John K. Zeilin and his son J. Henry 
Zeilin, another g. grand-son, each have 
one.* 

Mr. Kerlin's daughter Sarah's first 
husband was Henry Odenheimer. Her 
brother George, married Margaretta 
Odenheimer, her husband's sister. 
Mrs. Sarah Odenheimer, daughter of 
William Kerlin, had two sons, John 
W. Odenheimer, before referred to, 
and William Henry Odenheimer, ap- 
pointed a midshipman in the U. S. 
Navy through Commodore Truxton's 
influence, a very intimate friend of 
his parents. He was with Commo- 
dore David Porter on board the Essex, 
in the war of 181 2, at the battle of 
Valparaiso, and for his bravery and 
heroic conduct was promoted to a Lieu- 
tenancy. He was stationed on board 
the Franklin, seventy-four gun ship, 
after the war, and lost his life in 1815, 
being but 23 years old, from a severe 
cold caught by jumping overboard to 
save the life of the steward who was 
near drowning. He was buried at 
St. Michael's with military honors. 
He narrowly escaped being taken 
prisoner by the English, when they 
boarded the Essex, being one of the 
last of the officers to leave the ship, 
and did so by jumping overboard and 
swimming to shore, having been fired 
at several times whilst in the water. 
His mother married Mr. Joseph Pi- 

* Mr. Matthias Kerlin's son John, was in 
the Senate of Pennsylvania for eight years. 
The handsome property, afterwards sold to 
John O. Deshong, was left to his son, Abra- 
ham Kerlin, hv his father, William Kerlin. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



359 



per, an ofificer in the Customs for some 
years in Philadelphia, under General 
Steele. She was remarkable for her 
fine form and elegant horsemanship. 
Mr. Piper seeing her on horseback fell 
in love with her. By Mr. Piper she 
had three sons, George W., Augustus 
and Ferdinand, and two daughters, 
Caroline and Louisa. See Ante, 269. 
Joseph Piper resigned his office in the 
customs, to take possession of the Wash- 
ington Hotel, in which he continued 
until his death. Isaac Darlington, Pre- 
sident Judge of the District, made his 
home at the Washington Hotel during 
the sitting of the Court, every three 
months. He was a cousin of Mrs. Pi^ 
per. The widow continued the busi- 
ness for some years ; then rented the 
tavern to Evans S. Way, and afterwards 
to Samuel A. Price, who continued to 
keep the house until after her death. 
It was then sold by her executors at a 
great sacrifice, to the temperance peo- 
ple, and afterwards to Thomas Clyde, 
and to several others since. But little 
trace of the old mansion as it was, is 
seen — it is greatly changed." 

XXXVIII. 

In the winter of 1834-5, a few gen- 
tlemen of Delaware County met in a 
small frame store, on the old post-road 
leading to Chester, situated on the 
west side of Ridley Creek, north of the 
road and on the banks of the creek, 
which Avas then occupied by Jonathan 
P. Newlin as a country store, and 
owned by Spencer Mcllvain. The 
company consisted of William Martin, 
Spencer Mcllvain, John L. Crosby 
and Mr. Newlin — and there they dis- 
cussed the necessity for, and agreed 
to form an Insurance Company, and 
Mr. Martin, who was a lawyer, drew 



up a charter, which was by an Act of 
Assembly of the Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania, approved Apl. 10, 1835, 
and the following gentlemen named 
therein as commissioners for receiving 
subscriptions to the stock of the Com- 
pany^ to be called "The Delaware 
County Insurance Company," viz. : 



Joseph Engle, 
William Martin, 
Spencer Mcllvaii 
John P. Crozier, 



George F. Lehman, 
Samuel T. Walker, 
Samuel A. Price, 
Archibald T. Dick, 



Joseph Ml G. Lescure, Joshua P. Eyre, 

George Serrill, George Miller, 

Oborn Levis, Enos Painter, 

James ISL Willcox, John Lindsay, 

John L. Crosby, Henry Myers, 

Peirce Crosby, Jonathan P. Worrall, 

George G. Leiper, John O. Deshong, 

Thomas Smith, Esq., John Sellers, Jr., 

Joseph Gibbons, John P. James, 

H. Jones Brooke, Thomas Clyde, 

Edward Siter, Jonathan P. Newlin, 

John Richards, Charles D. Manley, 

William Amies, James Sill, 

John P. Griffith, Preston Eyre, 

Dennis Kelly, John G. Johnson, 

George W. Hill, William Vanleer, 

Joseph W. Smith, John K. Zeilin, 

John L. Pearson, John Aitken, 

Daniel Lamott, Robert E. Hannum, 

John Afflick, Esq., Edward Garrett, 

John Bancroft, Isaac Trimble, 

Caleb Churchman, Nathaniel W. Cowgill, 

John Edwards, Henry Lawrence. 

Subscriptions to the stock were taken 
at the public house of Isaac Hall, in 
Nether Providence. Mr. Thomas E. 
Ashmead says, that so sanguine were 
the citizens of Delaware County of the 
success of the new company, that on 
the day of taking the subscriptions to 
the stock, a large crowd of gentlemen 
assembled and absolutely fought their 
way into the Commissioners' room, in 
their anxiety to obtain the stock ; and 
that he was one of the number. 

From the first minute book of the 
Company I extract the following infor- 
mation : The first Board of Directors of 
the Company (who were elected at a 
meeting of. the stockholders on July 
23, 1835,) met at the house of John 
J. Thurlow, in Chester, on the 27th of 



;6o 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



the same month, all the Directors be- 
ing present, viz. : John P. Crozier, 
Joshua P. Eyre, John L. Crosby, 
Archibald T. Dick, Samuel M. Lei- 
per, Charles Kelly, David Trainer, 
George Serrill and John Bancroft. 
The meeting having been called to 
order, George Serrill was called to the 
chair, and Joshua P. Eyre appointed 
Secretary. After reading the charter, 
and the other usual formalities, the 
Company was duly organized by the 
election of George Serrill as President, 
and William Martin as Secretary. 

The first office occupied for the busi- 
ness of the Company at Chester, was 
the double dwelling at the N. E. cor- 
ner of Market and Third Streets, the 
office being in the northern room of 
the first floor, and the Secretary's fam- 
ily occupying the rest of the building. 
The office was a year or so afterwards 
removed to the " Stacey Mansion," 
on Main Street. From there the office 
was removed to Walnut Street, east of 
Second Street, Philadelphia, afterwards 
to the S. E. corner of Third and Dock 
Streets, then to the N. W. corner room 
of the Merchants' Exchange, where it 
remained until the completion of the 
Company's handsome four-storied red 
sand-stone building, at the S. E. cor- 
ner of Third and Walnut Streets, in 
which they commenced business on 
April 12, 1855. 

The Company went into operation 
in the fall of 1835, as will appear by 
the following copy of an advertisement 
taken from the files of the Upland 
Union ^ viz. : 

"Thk Delaware County Insurance 
Company. Capital authorized by law $100,- 
000, with the privilege of increasing the same 
to S250,CK)0. Charter perpetual. The pub- 
lic are respectfully informed, that the 'Dela- 
ware County Insurance Comjiany' are now 



prepared to make Insurance, either perma- 
nent or limited, on houses, barns and produce 
therein, stores, mills, buildings, factories, ma- 
chinery, goods, wares and merchandize, and 
on property generally of every description, 
against damage or loss by Firk, on terms as 
favorable to the assured as any similar insti- 
tution. 

Persons wishing to insure their property, or 
wanting information on the subject of insur- 
ance, will apply to the following agents of the 
Company, who are authorized to survey pro- 
perty intended to be insured : Henry Myers, 
Esq., Concord; John Aitken, Esq.,Edgmont; 
William Eves, Providence; John Richards, 
Upper Darby ; Peter A. Gamble, Chichester, 
or to the Secretary, at the office of the Com- 
pany, in the Borough of Chester. 

William Martin, Secretary. 
George Serrill, President. 
Chester, Sept. 24, 1835." 

In 1838, the Directors and Stock- 
holders of the Company resolved to 
remove the principal office for busi- 
ness, to Philadelphia, leaving only an 
agency at Chester. Having but a 
limited capital, it was resolved upon, 
soon after the removal, to adopt the 
mutual plan of doing business, with a 
guaranteed capital. Accordingly an 
Act of Assembly was sought for and 
obtained, March 17, 1843, with the 
desired privileges, and changing the 
name of the corporation to that of the 
"Delaware Mutual Safety Insurance 
Company," under which name it has 
been eminently successful, and is now 
among the most prosperous institutions 
of the kind in the United States. 

The officers of the institution since 
its inception have been as follows : 



Name. 

George Serrill, 
William Eyre, Jr., 
William Martin, 
Thomas C. Hand, 



Date of Election. 

July 27, 1835. 
Sept. 5, 1842. 
Jan. 3, 1844. 
Oct. 30, 1862. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



561 



VICE-PRESIDENTS. 



William Eyre, Jr., 
George Serrill, 
Thoma.s C. Hand, 
John C. Davis, 



SECRETARIES. 



William Martin, 
William D. Sherrerd, 
Richard S. Newbold, 
Joseph W. Cowan, 
Henry Lylburn, 



Sept. 3, 1844. 
Jan. 7, 1846. 
Oct. g, 1850. 
Oct. 30, 1862. 

July 27, 1835, 
Jan. 3, 1844, 
Feb. 5, 1846, 
Oct. 9, 1850 
Jan. 7, 1854, 



ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 

Henry Ball, Mar. 13, 1867. 

I give here a list of the names of all 
gentlemen who have served as Direc- 
tors of the Company since its organ- 
ization; among them will be found 
many Delaware County men of note 
and standing in their day and genera- 
tion. 

Directors. 

Natne. Date of election. Expiration term, 

John P. Crozier, July 23, 1835. Sept. 7, 1840 

Joshua P. Eyre, " " d. April i, 1872 

John L. Crosby, " " Sept. 2, 1839 

Sept. 5, 1837 

Sept. 7, 1840. 

d. Mar. 27, 1864 

Sept. 6, 1836 

Sept. 30, 1850 

Sept. 6. 1836 

Sept. 5, 1837 

Sept. 3, 1838 



Archibald T. Dick, 

Samuel M. Leiper, " 

Charles Kelly, 

David Trainer, " 

George Serrill, " 

John Bancroft, " 

Stephen Baldwin, Sept. 6, 

John Knox, " 

John Kerlin, Sept. 5, 1837. Sept. 3, 1838 

Davis B. Stacey, " " Feb'y 7, 1849 

Samuel Edwards, Sept. 3, 1838. Jan'y 5, 1861, 

Sampson Tarns, " " Sept. 2, 1839 

John H. Deihl, 

Henry Lawrence, Sept. 2, 1839. J^'i'v 5, 1848, 

William Folwell, " " Jan'y 3, 1853 

Joseph H. Seal, " " </. Mayig, 1875, 

George G. Leiper, Sept. 7, 1840. (/. Nov. 17, i868 

William Eyre, Jr., " " d. March, i863 

John Cochran, " " Jan'y i, 1844 

John S. Newlin, Sept. 5, 1842. d. May — , 1852 

Edward Darlington, " " Present inevi 

John Hinkson, " " d. August, 1844 

Jonathan Thomas, " " Jan'y 5, 1846 

J. Gifford Johnson, Apl. 29, 1843. Jan'y 4, 1B58 

William Hay, " " Jan'y 7, 1850, 

John Garrett, " " Jan'y i, 1849, 

Edmund A. Souder, " " d. , 1873. 

Theophilus Paulding, " " d. Jan. 25, 18)0 

Hugh Craig, " " Presetit mem. 

John C. Davis, " " d. Nov. 26, 1873 

Thomas Cave, " " Jan'y 5, 1846 

James C. Hand, " " Present mem 



Peter A. Keyser, Ap'l 29, 1843. Jan'y 7, 1843. 

Dr. Robt. M. Huston, " " <•/. Aug. 3, 1864. 

John McKeever, Jr., " " Jan'y i, 1844- 

Dr. George Smith, June 7, 1843. July 5, 1843. 

John H. Andrews, " " Jan'y i, 1844. 

John R. Penrose, Jan. i, 1844. rf. Sept. 11, 1869. 

Robert Burton, '• " d. ,1854. 

H. Jones Brooke, " " d. Dec. 19, 1876. 

Dr. Samuel Thomas, Sept. 4, 1844, Jan'y i, 1849. 

John Sellers, Jr., Jan. 5, 1846. Jan'y 7,1850. 

Spencer INIcIlvain, " " Present incm. 

Isaac R. Davis, " " Jan'y 2, 1854. 

Henry Sloan, Jan. i, 1849. rf. Oct. 19, 1872. 

D. T. Morgan,* June 6, 1849. Present mem. 

J. T. Logan,* " " Jan'y 2, i860. 

William Bagaley,* " " Jan'y 6, 1851. 

Samuel E. Stokes, Jan. 7, 1850. Present mem. 

James Traquair, " " " " 

William Martin, " " rf. Oct. 16,1862. 

Joshua L. Price, Jan. 5, 1851. Jan'y 4, 1858. 

James Tennant, " " " " 

Joseph S. Burnett, " " Jan'y 2, 1854. 

James B. McFarland, Jan. 3, 1853. Present mem. 
William C. Ludwig, 

James B. Semple,* Jan. 11, 1854. d. Mar. 24, 1873. 

Charles Schaffer, " " Jan'y 7,1856. 

Robert Burton, Jr., Jan. i, 1855. d. Apl. 11, 1866. 

Thomas C. Hand, Jan. 7, 1856. Present mem. 

John F. Peniston, Jan. 4, 1858. d. Sept. 21,1866. 

Jacob P. Jones, " " Present inem. 

A. B. Berger,* Jan. 2, i860, " 
WiUiam G. Boulton, Jan. 5, 1863. 

Henry C. Dallet, Jr., " " Jan'y 6, 1873. 

John D. Taylor, Jan. 5, 1865. Present mem. 

Ed. Lafourcade, Jan. 2, 1865. " " 

Jacob Riegel, Jan. 7, 1867. " " 

Geo. W. Bernadou, " " " " 

Wm. C. Houston, Jan. 4, 1869. " " 

H. Frank Robinson, Jan. 3, 1870. " " 

Thos. P. Stotesbury, Jan. 2,1871. " " 

Henry P. Sloan, Jan. 6, 1873. " " 

Jno. H. Michener, " " " " 

Jno. H. Catherwood, " " " " 

Andrew Wheeler, Jan. 5, 1874. " " 
William S. Bissell,* 

N. Parker Shortridge, << << << << 

Thomas Clyde, Dec. 8, 1875. " " 

The long period of service which 
many gentlemen have given, of time 
valuable to active business men, led the 
Board of Directors some years since to 
institute as commemorative of twenty- 
five years service, 2^ Resolution, that af- 
ter a Director had served for a period 
of twenty-five consecutive years, his 
portrait should be painted and hung 
in the Directors' room of the Com- 
pany ; and in pursuance thereof, por- 
traits of several gentlemen who have 
served the allotted term, painted by 

* Residents nf Pittshura;. Pa. 



:ui: 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



theeminciu Artist, ^VAU(;n, now grace 
the walls of the institution. 

Edward Darlington, Esq., was coun- 
sel of the Company before its removal 
from Chester. Since my admission to 
the Bar in 1844, I (the Author) have 
been Solicitor for the Company, at first 
as junior, to the late distinguished ad- 
vocate, Ferdinand W. Hubbell, Esq., 
the great maritime lawyer of his day in 
Philadelphia, a worthy successor of the 
venerable Horace Binney, who became 
so celebrated as an adviser in mercan- 
tile and insurance matters. 

After Mr. Hubbell's death, the Di- 
rectors associated Mr. George M. 
Wharton, an amiable gentleman and 
an able advocate with me as senior 
counsel ; and since Mr. Wharton's 
death, the President and Directors of 
the Company have retained me as their 
advising counsel, a mark of confidence 
of w^hich I feel justly proud. 

This Company does a fire, marine 
and inland business of insurance, at 
rates of premium fixed by the Boards 
of Fire and Marine Underwriters ; in 
this respect not differing from other 
companies in its mode of transacting 
business. Its peculiar features exist 
in its method of dividing its yearly 
profits, if any. Although it has a stock 
capital of $360,000, the stockholders 
do not receive all the profits made, 
but a large proportion thereof goes to 
its customers, who are styled in the 
charter insured members. 

The yearly profit is thus divided : — 
After paying the stockholders eight 
per cent, out of the profit, the remain- 
der is divided //v rata among the in- 
sured members, in the proportion that 
the premiums paid by each on risks 
determined during the year, bears to 
the i)r()fit to be divided. That is, if 
so much total jiremiums make a jjrofit 



of a given sinii, what will eacli insured 
members' premium receive? But when 
these amounts are arrived at, no insur- 
ed member receives a profit, unless his 
proportion reaches the sum of $25 ; all 
sums less than that amount go into the 
surplus fund of the Company to meet 
losses, &c. The amounts due to in- 
sured members are not paid in cash, 
but in certificates, called scrip certi- 
ficates, which bear six per cent, inter- 
est per annum, and may be redeemed 
by the Company at any time w^hen the 
net profitsexceed the sum of $250,000. 
By a provision in the charter, it is 
agreed, that when the business of the 
Company gives the insured members 
a profit of twenty-five per cent, or 
over, the stockholders may receive ten 
per cent, dividend. 

The scrip certificates issued to the 
insured members, therefore represent 
a reserved fund of the corporation, 
formed out of its yearly profits ; and 
at any time before its redemption, is 
liable for any losses that the Company 
might sustain, that would impair that 
scrip fund ; and for this purpose the 
Directors are authorized by the charter 
to call in the scrip certificates and re- 
duce the same to an amount sufficient 
to cover its losses, if they cannot be 
paid out of the profits of the Company, 
an event which has never yet occurred 
in the history of the Company. It 
will be observed from the above state- 
ment, that each year's business stands 
alone, else the interest of the insured 
members could not be properly pro- 
tected. 

By this mode of doing business, the 
capital of the Company is always held 
as a reserved fimd, to be used only in 
payment of losses, after all other means 
(including the scrip fund) are exhaust- 
ed, and the more scrip the corporation 



HISTORY OF CHESTEK. 



)ion 



has out in the hands of her insured 
members, the larger is the protection 
offered to customers and stockholders. 

The Fire business is cash. The Ma- 
rine transactions are principally upon 
open policies of insurance upon vessels 
and cargoes, and is a credit business, 
payable by note, or if in cash, with a 
legal discount for pre-payment. 

The "Delaware Mutual," as the 
Company is familiarly called by those 
doing business with it ; has passed with 
safety through vicissitudes of an exten- 
sive fire, marine and inland business, 
and several great fires, in which it 
covered large risks. In the great fire 
in Pittsburg in 1845, ^^^ Company 
had heavy insurances, and the prompt 
payment of all its losses there, gained 
for it a reputation in the West, that 
finally led to the establishment of a 
branch ofifice in that city, at which 
Mr. Peter A. Madeira, has represented 
theCompanyas their Agent since 1849. 
Three Directors reside in Pittsburg, 
and the Company own their office 
building. No. 68 Fourth Avenue, the 
business centre of that city. 

The Delaware, unlike most other in- 
surance companies, has very few agen- 
cies, and those they have are in charge 
of careful and experienced men, tho- 
roughly conversant with their business. 
At Cincinnati, Mr. Charles Bonsall, 
the descendant of a Delaware County 
family, is the agent. At Boston, Col. 
William Vincent Hatchings, who serv- 
ed in the Federal Union army during 
the late war, has been for over twenty 
years the agent of the Company in that 
ancient city. 

Col. Hutchings is a native of Glou- 
cester city, the great fishing port of 
Massachusetts, off which the celebrat- 
ed sea-fight between H. B. M. ship 
"Shannon," and the American ship 



"Chesapeake," Capt. Lawrence, took 
place. The scene of the fight is call- 
ed "Dead Man's Shoals," I believe. 
I passed a pleasant day there once with 
Mr. Hand, Mr. Hutchings, and some 
other gentlemen, cod fishing. 

After the death of my father, Wil- 
liam Martin, the late President of the 
Delaware Mutual Safety Insurance 
Companv, gratifying resolutions of 
esteem and respect were passed by 
the Board of Directors, which appear- 
ed in the local journals of the day, 
and are inserted in the family history, 
at page 332. These resolutions were 
prepared by his associate, Mr. Thomas 
C. Hand, the then Vice-President of 
the Company. 

As William Martin was born in the 
town of Chester, and passed over forty 
years of his life either there or in its 
vicinity, and his remains lie with those 
of his parents and ancestors in the old 
graveyard of St. Paul's, it may be in- 
teresting to his friends and relatives 
to know in what estimation he was 
held in the city, in which his business 
led him to reside during the latter 
years of his life ; for this purpose I 
insert here an obituary from the F/uV- 
adelphia Commercial List, no doubt 
written by its able editor, Stephen N. 
Winslow, (premising it with the re- 
mark, that Mr. Martin during his city 
life, had always an intense longing 
and desire for the country life of his 
younger days. ) 

" It is with extreme regret that we announce 
the decease of William Martin, Esq., the Pre- 
sident of the Delaware Mutual Safety Insurance 
Company. It took place on Thursday even- 
ing, Oct. 16, 1862. He was in the sixty-sixth 
year of a life which had been marked through- 
out its entire length, by honors won by his own 
steadfast integrity, by his zeal and energy, and 
by the bright and honorable confidence yield- 
ed him by the public and by those whose dis- 



aG4 



IlISTOllY OF CHESTER. 



tiiKliiin il was to l)e his friciuls. Siicli a life 
JLavo, at its scttiiiij, a ])atli\vay of radiance 
and beauty, siicli as the sun's decline throws 
forth on these mellow anil lieautiful evenings 
of autumn, and we wish we could impress 
upon every one our feelings of the nobility of 
just such a career as that now ended. The 
business life of William Martin l)egan amid 
ilifficulties and uncertainties such as beset the 
wisest, greatest and best of men ; but his abil- 
ities soon made their mark, and at his dealh 
all that is good and generous centres around 
his grave. To prove the truthfulness of our 
eulogy, let us give a sketch of his career, with 
a brief notice of the principal positions of 
honor and trust which he enjoyed. 

"William Martin, Esq., was the son of Dr. 
Wm. Martin and Eleanor Crosby his wife. 
He was born at Chester, Pa., Sept. 17, 1797, 
and admitted to the Bar of Delaware County 
in 1821. He married, at St. Peter's Church, 
Jan. 4, 1821, Miss Sarah Ann Smith, youngest 
daughter of Wm. Smith, Jr., merchant of Phil- 
adelphia. In a record left by himself he says : 
' At the request of my grandfather, Judge John 
Crosby, I commenced the study of law with 
Wm. Graham, at Chester, May 5, 1819, and 
was admitted to practice at the July term, 
1 82 1.' He was also Captain of the Pennsyl- 
vania Artillerists of Chester. His commission 
is dated May 28, 1825, and the document is 
now in the possession of the family. He was 
elected a member of the Legislature of the 
State in 1827 and 1828. He was a Vestry- 
man of St. Paul's Church, Chester. He was 
appointed a Director of the Public Schools of 
Delaware County, and a Justice of the Peace 
of that county, and his commission by (iov. 
Ritner, is dated June 10, 1836. 

" In 1835, he was elected the Secretary of 
the Delaware County Insurance Coinpany, and 
removed to Philadelphia with the office of the 
Company in the fall of 1838. In 1844, he 
became the President of the Company, the 
name of which was changed to that of the 
Delaware Mutual Safety Insurance Company. 
He was a Vestryman and Warden o( the 
Churcli of the Ascension, and a Vestryman of 
St. Luke's Church, Philadelphia. He was a 
Director and Controller of the Public Schools 
of the old City of Philadelphia, President of 
the Board of Directorsof the first School Dis- 
trict of Pennsylvania, and also President of 
the Pennsylvania Steamship Company, and of 



the l'iiihulelj)liia Steam Tug Company. He 
was also President of the Board of Fire Un- 
derwriters of Philadelphia, and a Manager of 
the Deaf and Dumb Asylum from 1858 till his 
death. He was elected by the Councils of 
Philadelphia, and acted as a Directorof Girard 
College from 1853 to i860. In the Girard 
College Board he was Chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Accounts. In addition, he held the 
place of a Director of the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road for the last four years, and was a Direc- 
tor of the West Philadelphia Passenger Rail- 
I way Company, from its origin. He was one 
1 of the Directors and one of the originators of 
the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, 
and was a Manager of the House of Refuge 
for the years 1854, 1855 ^^^ 1856. His 
father. Dr. Wm. Martin, was the first Wor- 
shipful Master of Masonic Lodge No. 69, of 
Chester, Pennsylvania, and the deceased was 
the last one. He was appointed Chief Bur- 
gess of the town of Chester in the year 1832. 
" Such is an enumeration of the main posi- 
tions of responsibility held by William Martin. 
A truthful as well as full account would show 
how he brought the old Delaware County 
Insurance Company up from a position of 
comparative insignificaiice, to be one of the 
most stable and prosperous companies in the 
United States. During his presidency of near 
a score of years, his exertions were incessant, 
and, under the title of ' The Delaware Mutual 
Safety Insurance Company,' he has left that 
institution as a fitting monument to his memory. 
" We may add, that this prosperous insur- 
ance company gives, in our advertising col- 
umns, the warmest testimonial any man could 
wish, a special meeting having adopted reso- 
lutions full of generous appreciation of his 
wortii, and replete with sadness at their loss- 
This Company possesses all the qualifications 
for permanence and perpetuity which are pos- 
sible. In addition to their late President, its 
Board of Directors were men of the same high 
class of character, and from year to year they 
have retained their posts with honor and abil- 
ity. Of twenty-eight directors, all well known 
in the business world, the following gentlemen _ 
have been connected with the Company in 
their present position, more than a round 
score of years : Edmund A. Souder, James C. 
Hand, Hugh Craig, Joseph H. Seal, John R. 
Penrose, John C. Davis, George G. Leiper, 
Edward Darlington, Dr. Robert M. Huston, 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



365 



Spencer Mcllvain, Charles Kelly, H. Jones 
Hrooke, Theophilus Paulding, William Eyre, 
Jr., Samuel E. Stokes, Henry Sloan and J. T. 
Logan. The Company is fortunate in the pos- 
session of such a Board of Directors, and espe- 
cially fortunate in having had for so long a 
period at his post Thomas C. Hand, Esq., as 
its Vice-President, under whose fostering care 
the interests of the concern will continue to 
prosper as they have done in the past. 

" But, in speaking of the institutions with 
which William Martin was identified for so 
many years, we had digressed. We return to 
make a record of the last honors paid to the 
deceased. On Monday last his remains were 
interred at Chester, in the presence of a large 
concourse of those who had known, loved and 
trusted him in life, and who no\\' honor his 
memory in death. Fruitful in beautiful ex- 
ample is such a life, and doubly honored is 
such a death as that of William Martin." 

It is not my place to speak in com- 
mendation of the living, but I may 
justly say that the Delaware Mutual 
owes its present prosperity and high 
standing, at home and abroad, to the 
undoubted business qualifications of 
its President, Mr. Thomas C. Hand, 
who is perfectly and thoroughly at 
home in all questions that arise in un- 
derwriting. 

The " Penn Mutual Life Insurance 
Company," of Philadelphia, owes its 
existence to the officers and directors 
of the " Delaware Mutual," who being 
anxious to protect their families in the 
future and insure their lives, decided 
to get up a Life Insurance Company. 
Accordingly my father, William Mar- 
tin, and myself, drew up a charter, and 
it was passed by the Legislature, and 
approved 24th of February, 1847, ^rid 
Mr. John W. Horner, was made Secre- 
tary and chief Manager of the institu- 
tion, and remained connected with 
the Company until he died, late in 
1873. The forms, prospectus and the 
tables of rates, which I made for the 
company, are still in use unaltered. 



In 1869, an attempt was made in 
Chester to form another insurance 
company for local business; and the 
following notice appeared in the Re- 
publican, of June 4th, of that year. 
" The books for subscriptions to the 
stock of the ' Chester Fire Insurance 
Company,' will be opened at the bank- 
ing house of Broomall, Ward & Baker, 
in Chester, on Thursday, July i, 1869. 
Subscriptions will be received until the 
stock shall be taken. William Ward, 
George Baker, Amos Gartside, Samuel 
Montgomery, William J. Sharpless, 
Perciphor Baker, George M. Pardoe, 
Y. S. Walter, William N. Wilson, 
Commissioners. ' ' 

And on the 9th of July, 1869, the 
editor of the Republican, referring to 
this Company in his paper, stated edi- 
torially : 

" That this Company will become a fixed and 

successful enterprise among us, is now settled 

beyond doubt. The field in this vicinity is 

a broad one, and our citizens are only anxious 

for the opportunity to drive out the foreign 

corporations that are absorbing their means, 

and about the security of which they must 

necessarily be left in doubt, while large ex- 

I penses and heavy salaried officers keep up the 

j rates of insurance. There is but one native 

company now located among us — the Dela- 

! ware County Mutual, at Media — and none 

j better was ever organized ; but it finds itself 

unable to meet the growing demands of the 

city and county, and keep within the safe and 

sure limits that have always marked its policy." 

By an Act of Assembly of April 6, 
id>']o, Pamphlet Laws, 1870, p. 994, 
the Court of Common Pleas of Dela- 
ware County, was authorized to issue 
a certificate of incorporation to the 
" Chester Fire Insurance Company, 
as soon as ten per cent, of the amount 
of the stock was fully paid in cash," 
&c. The Company was never organ- 
ized, and the hopes of its success were 
therefore never fulfilled. This work 



;66 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



would be incomplete without yne pro- 
verb, so here I give one : " Don't 
count your chickens before they are 
hatched." 

The Delmoare County Republican, 
of March 13, 1874, announces: 

" A new Insurance Comjjany — an institu- 
tion long wanted in our midst — was organ- 
ized in this city, last week. It will be known 
as tlie Chester Mutual Insurance Company. 
Heretofore, all our insurances, which ought 
to have been efifected at home, have gone 
abroad. The new company will begin with 
the issuing of policies to the amount of nearly 
$150,000, that sum having been subscribed 
before the adjournment of the meeting for or- 
ganization. We predict its full and complete 
success from the start. It will be represented 
by men of capital, who understand the im- 
portance of having an institution of the kind 
here. Following is a list of the officers : 

President — John Larkiii, Jr. 

Vice President— Vi. H. Bickley. 

Secretary and Treasurer — Geo. M. Booth. 

Directors — Wm. Ward, J. Newlin Trainer, 
Benjamin Gartside, William Booth, George 
M. Pardee, Perciphor Baker, John Larkin, Jr., 
George Broomall, James Irving, M. H. Bick- 
ley, Wm. I). H. Serrill and Wm. B. Broomall." 

The gentlemen connected with the 
company are all enterprising men of 
business, and it is to their exertions 
Chester owes so much of its pros- 
perity ; but from long experience in 
Insurance matters, I doubt very much 
whether a Mutual Insurance Company 
can be successfully conducted in a 
closely built up city ; yet I trust the 
new institution may prove me to be as 
bad a prophet as my old friend, Wal- 
ter, of the Republican. 

The officers of the Dklawake Co. 
Mutual Ins. Co., mentioned above, 
as located at Media, are : 

President — Sketchley Morton. 

Sec')' and Treas'r — Edward A. Price. 

Z>/;r^/(j;-j— Sketchley Morton, Thomas Pratt, 
Nathan Larkin, Levis Miller, Nathan Garrett, 
Henry L. Paschall, C. R. Williamson, Wil- 
liam Eves, Sr., Henrv Mendenhall. 



XXXIX. 

The Military Record of Chester 
and of Delaware County during the 
late Rebellion of 1861-65, is a very 
creditable one to the patriotism of its 
citizens. I will endeavor to give as 
brief an account as possible of all the 
most interesting incidents of the war, 
connected with the county, of those 
resulting from it, and of the persons 
connected therewith. 

A Government Hospital was located 
near Chester, in what is now the Cro- 
zer Theological Seminary, for the re- 
ception of the sick and wounded Union 
soldiers, but as I had not intended to 
touch upon this part of the history of 
the town, I have no information further 
on this subject ; except that my cousins, 
Dr. Charles J. Morton, of Chester, 
and Dr. Brinton Stone, then an As- 
sistant Surgeon in the regular Army, 
were stationed there for some time 
during the war. 

Among the companies raised for the 
three months' service, under the first 
call of the General Government for 
troops, under tlTe erroneous impression 
that the Southern rebellion was not 
going to be very formidable, was one 
raised in Chester, and organized at 
Harrisburg, April 23, 1861, called 
" The Union Blues," attached to the 
9th Regiment of Infantry, Pennsyl- 
vania Volunteers. 

MUSTER ROLL OF THK INION BLIKS. 
Henry B. Edwards, Captain. 
James G. Stagey, \st Lieut. 
William Blakeley, 2rf Z/Vk^ 

Sergeants . 

1. William B. Stevenson, 3. James Williams, 

2. John Beck, 4. William Eves. 

Corporals. 

1. Isaac Weaver, 3. Charles Story, 

2. William R. Thatcher, 4. Jesse Cummlngs. 

Fi/er, Drtatntier , 

Alexander King. Ezra Dansfield. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



367 



John Booth, 
Joseph Barker, 
Joseph Brewster, 
Lewis Benner, 
John Barrowclough, 
Thomas Blythe, 
Isaac Badden, 
William H. Brown, 
David Biirk, 
George Booth, 
Thomas W. Bruner 
Edward Crowther, 
Joseph CoUison, 
Samuel Cross, 
Daniel Crowther, 
James Cliff, 
Allen Carr, 
Frederick Cutler, 
"Frederick Crider, 
Simeon Davis, 
John Doyle, 
William Elliott, 
Joseph Ettienne, 
Robert Fogg, 
John Farraday, 
Joseph Grooves, 
William P. Huff, 
James Hewes, 
George Helms, 
William F. Jester, 
Tames P. Kelly, 
Edward Kay, 



Privates. 

Jonathan Kershaw, 
Edward Lilly, 
Edward Lyons, 
Thomas McNamee, 
William McNeil, 
John Marshall, 
William Marlor, 
Samuel McDaniel, 
George McAffee, 
John C. Morton, 
John Philips, 
Daniel Pithie, 
Thomas F. Pierce, 
Anthony Quinn, 
Francis Rodrigos, 
Robert Raney, 
Samuel Shepherd, 
Francis Scott, 
Edgar Stephenson, 
William V. Shellinger 
John Smith, 
Samuel Smith, 
Thomas Toy, 
Joseph Taylor, 
Richard Turner, 
George W. Wilson, 
Joshua L. Wilson, 
John Wagner, 
Robert Wright, 
Alfred Woodhead, 
George Weigan, 
Reed L. Weaver. 



The Republican, of June 21, 1861, 
after giving the above roll, says ; 

" We have before us a letter from an officer 
attached to Captain Edwards' ' Union Blues,' 
dated on the 17th inst., at Camp Brady, 
Williamsport, Maryland. The regiment left 
Chambersburg on the 15th inst., and, after 
marching ten miles, encamped. On Sunday 
at nine o'clock, orders were given to march, 
and accompanied by the different regiments 
under General Patterson, including several 
companies of regulars, the party arrived, early 
in the day, on the banks of the Potomac, which 
was forded, the water being some three or 
four feet deep, and the stream at that point, 
between four and five hundred yards wide. 
The Blues ' went in' with a shout and a hur- 
rah, singing, as they waded through, 

' We are crossing the river Jordan.' 

The Ninth Regiment, to which the Blues 
are attached, followed the United States In- 
fantry, and were the second company to cross 
the Potomac. Captain Edwards led his men, 
and was the first in the water. 

The sight of the army crossing the Potomac 
was very grand and impressive, as well the 



scene itself, as for the great occasion, so re- 
markable and memorable in its character. 
The Captains led their companies, and the 
men took to the water like spaniels. They 
dashed in with a whoop, and as the head of 
each regiment struck the bank on 'Old Vir- 
ginia's shore,' they raised a rousing cheer 
which made the welkin ring. The bugles and 
fifes played, and the men sang ' Dixie,' as 
they went in. 

Arrived on the soil of Virginia, the regi- 
ments formed into line to await the arrival of 
their baggage. Two miles from the river 
they again encamped, having passed on their 
march the spot which but a few days before, 
was occupied by the secession army. The 
writer states that the Blues are all well, con- 
tented and happy, and ready to execute any 
order that may be communicated to them by 
their officers." 

I append the Muster Roll of Com- 
pany K. 26th Pennsylvania Volunteers, 
Col. Wm. F. Small, one of the first 
regiments raised in Pennsylvania for 
the three years' service. The Adjutant 
General's Report, in reference to this 
Company is very imperfect. The 
name of its first commanding officer, 
Capt. Grubb, not being mentioned. 

This company of volunteers from 
the vicinity of Chester, was mustered 
into the three years' service May 27, 
1861 ; mustered out (veterans and re- 
cruits excepted,) June 18, 1864. At 
the time of its entry into service, it 
consisted of: 

William L. Grubb, Captain. 
William F. Robinson, ist Lieut. 
Peter Penn-Gaskill Hall, id Lieut. 
John F. Meekins, Orderly Serg't. 



rge, 



ints 



Jacob Culin, 
William Clark, 



3. James F. Seary, 

4. Samuel P. Morris. 



1. James Grubb, 

2. George W. Rosevelt, 

3. William Grounsell, 

4. Thomas M. Allen, 



Corporals. 

5. William H. Phillips 

6. Isaac Brown, 

7. Chris. Beatty, 

8. Nathan Larkin. 



Fi/er, 
Alexander Grayson. 
ll'agoner- 



Drmnmer 
Andrew Sample, 
than Coleman. 



t68 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



Privates. 

Henry Abbott, Levi Hill, 

William Agnew, Burd Hergesheiraer, 

Lewis Bail, John S. Hunter, 

Mark Bail, James Higgins, 

William Barger, Henry Johnson, 

George Branner, Matthew Kersey, 

James T. Bell, Charles Krewson, 

Isaac Bird, Samuel Latch, 

Thomas Blizzard, Morton Lindsay, 

John Boyle, John Long, 

Thomas Brown, Archibald McNeal, 

Joseph Boudet, William H. McGinnes, 

James Burns, Robert McGrath, 

Eliakin Brown, William B. Michael, 

James Cloud, James Morris, 

Joseph Conner, Edward McGrogen, 

John Detweiler, William H. Miller, 

Henry Dickson, John M'Clearn, 

Isaac Dugan, David S. Moore, 

Joseph Dicks, Andrew J. Marshall, 

John Devlin, John O'Neil, 

William Dick, Samuel PuUen, 

John O. Drain, Andrew Phillips, 

Horatio Edmonson, William Phillips, 

Jacob Evans, Benjamin Pyne, 

Alfred Free, William Porter, 
William H. Ferguson, William Rambo, 

Isaac Force, George W. Robb, 

Daniel C. Ford, Andrew Rodgers, 

John Freeman, Benjamin F. Robb, 

James Ford, James Starr, 

Constantine Frigger, Edward Shields, 

Philip Feaster, James Schofield, 

Henry Goodman, Thomas Senior, 

John Grubb, Benjamin F. Sutch, 

Joseph Grubb, George Turner, 

James Grubb, Nathan Vanhorn, 

James L. Giltson, James Welsh, 

William Hayes, Samuel West, 

Thomas Haslem, James O. Winner, 

George Helms, Seth Yett. 

The " Archy Dick Guards," another 
company of vohinteers recruited from 
the vicinity of Chester, was organized 
at " Camp Wayne," near West Ches- 
ter, June 9, 1 86 1, as Co. F, 30th Regi- 
ment of Pennsylvania Volunteers. It 
was called by the above name in honor 
of the memory of the late Archibald 
T. Dick, Esq., once a prominent and 
popular citizen of Chester, and a mem- 
ber of the Delaware County Bar. The 
following is a muster roll of the com- 
pany : 

William Coopek Tallev, Captain. 

Henry Huddleson, \st Lieut. 

James S. I'kters, 20' Z/Vk/. 
Se7-geants. 
I.J. Wesley Cook, 3. Joseph P. Drew, 

i. Jacob C. Bcrstler, 4. Samuel Batty. 



1. John McDaniel; 

2. John P. Fryer, 



Corporals. 

3. Alexander Matthews, 

4. James Lewis. 



Drummer, 
William B. Drake. 



Fi/er, 
Hayes P. Griffith. 

Privates. 

John Alcott, Henry Haycock, 

Squire Booth, James W. Jones, 

Joseph Bradley, George Jones, 

Edmund Bradley, John Kilroy, 

William Burk, John Kelley, 

Isaiah Budd, George Laird, 

Henry Bailey, Michael Macklam, 

Pratt Baldwin, Joseph S. Mott, 

John Baker, Wesley McBride, 

Levi Carr, Thomas Mills, 

John Cardell, James Makeson, 

James Cohen, John McCracken, 

Arthur Carrell, Michael Nolan, 

James Deans, Edward O'Neal, 

Patrick Doyle, Adam Pilkington, 

John Ferguson, George W. Parker, 

John Fitzgerald, Samuel Parker, 

William Gray, John Roberts, 

Samuel Gray, William Richardson, 

James Glass, William Rowe, 

Thomas Glass, Moses Scott, 

George Griffith, Thomas Smith, 

Harrison Green, Edward Smith, 

Dennis Green, George W. Simmington, 

John Gamble, William Stacey, 

William Guilford, Edward Townsend, 

Henry Gilkin, James W. Turner, 

James Gorman, George W. Timbler, 

John Hardy, Joseph Whiteman, 

Isaac Healey, James Wilson, 

Joseph S. M. Houpt, Frazer Walter, 

Thomas Horner, John Wilde, 

John Howard, James M. Willis. 

From the report of the Adjutant 
General of the State, and from Bates' 
History of the Pennsylvania A'olun- 
teers, 1870, a splendid work in five 
large volumes, presented to me by Mr. 
Tryon Lewis, of Radnor, late a mem- 
ber of Assembly from Delaware Co., 
I have extracted the following informa- 
tion in regard to those gentlemen who 
served in the volunteer forces of the 
United States during the late Rebel- 
lion, who hailed from Chester, and 
from the County of Delaware, viz. : 

Dr. John M. Allen, entered the 
volunteer service, Oct. 15, 1861, as 
Surgeon of the 54th Regiment of Pa. 
Vols. ; mustered out of service, Nov. 
4, 1864; now residing at Chester. 

Henry B. Edwards, O'aptain of 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



3(59 



Co. I, 9th Regiment of Pa. Vols., or- 
ganized at Harrisburg, April 24, 1861, 
for three months' service ; mustered 
out of service, July 29,1861 ; Coun- 
sellor-at-Law, now residing at Chester. 

James G. Stagey, ist Lieut, of the 
same, with a like record, (see sketch of 
the Stacey family, p. 46,) now de- 
ceased. 

William Blakeley, 2d Lieut, of 
the same, with a like record ; plum- 
ber and gas fitter, now residing at 
Chester. 

William Cooper Talley, entered 
the service May i, 1861, as Captain 
of Co. F, 30th Pa. Vols. ; Colonel, 
Nov. 2, 1862 ; mustered out of service, 
June 13, 1864; Brigadier General of 
Volunteers by Brevet, for distinguished 
services ; now editor of the De/atcare 
County Democrat, at Chester, and late 
a member of the Assembly. 

Samuel A. Dyer, Captain Co. C, 
30th Pa. Vols., May i, 1861 ; resigned, 
Nov. II, 1862; re-entered service, 
Nov. 12, 1862, as I^ieut. Col., 175th 
Pa. Vols. ; Colonel, Nov. 22, 1862; 
honorably discharged, Aug. i, 1863; 
now residing at Chester. 

Dr. Joshua Owen, Surgeon, 25th 
Pa. Vols., April 18, 1861 ; mustered 
out of service, Aug. i, 1861 ; now 
practicing physician at Chester. 

Charles L. Leiper, ist Lieut, of 
Co. C, 70th Pa. Vols., being the 6th 
Cavalry, Sept. i, 1861 ; Captain, Nov. 
2, 1862 ; Major, July 14, 1864; Lieut. 
Col., Jan. 2, 1865 ; Colonel, March 
2, 1865 ; mustered out with 2d Pro- 
visional Cavalry, Aug. 7, 1865. 

George W. Hawkins, Captain of 
Co. I, 97th Pa. Vols., Oct. 29, 1861; 
Lieut. Col., Sept. 18, 1864; died of 
wounds received in battle, Oct. 8, 1864. 

Benjamin Brooke, 2d Lieut, of 
Co. T, 29th Emergency Pa. Vols., 



June 23, 1863 \ mustered out, Aug. i, 
1 863 ; Captain of Co. B, 203d Pa. Vols., 
Sept. 12, 1864; Lieut. Col., May 3, 
1865 ; mustered out, June 22, 1865 ; 
now living at Saxton, Bedford Co., Pa. 

Dr. G. B. HoTCHKiN, Surgeon, 
44th Pa. Vols., Nov. 12, 1862 ; mus- 
tered out with regiment, Sept. 9, 1864. 

Dr. Isaac T. Coates, Assistant 
Surgeon, 77th Regiment, Sept. 19, 
1865 ; mustered out, Dec. 6, 1865. 

Rev. Samuel Gracey, Chaplain of 
the 6th Pa. Cavalry, 70th Regiment, 
Pa. Vols., Nov. 24, 1862 ; mustered 
out, Aug. 7, 1865. 

Dr. S. Chase King, Assistant Sur- 
geon of the 5 th Cavalry, Dec. 31, 
1861 ; transferred to the 4th, March 
20, 1862; resigned, Dec. 5, 1862. 

J. Edgar Engle, entered the ser- 
vice as a private in the 97th Pa. Vols., 
Nov. 27, 1 861 ; severely wounded in 
the throat, and lost his left arm (taken 
out at the socket, after submitting to 
three previous amputations,) at the 
battle of Green Plains, Bermuda Hun- 
dred, Virginia, May 16, 1864; pro- 
moted to 2d Lieut, of the Veteran 
Reserve Corps ; now clerk in the Gov- 
ernment employ at Washington, D. C. ; 
son of the late Captain Isaac Engle, 
of Chester. 

Thomas I. Leiper, ist Lieut. Sept. 

13, 1861 ; Adjutant 58th Pa. Vols., 
May I, 1862; Captain, Co. A, June 

14, 1863 ; honorably discharged at 
the expiration of his term of service, 
Oct 24, 1864; son of the late Samuel 
M. and Mary B. Leiper, of Ridley ; 
manufacturer, now residing at Chester. 

Theodore Blakeley, 2d Lieut, of 
Co. B, 58th Pa. Vols., Sept. 15, 1861 ; 
ist Lieut. Jan 31, 1863; Captain, 
May 23, 1863; killed at the storming 
of Fort Harrison, Va., Sept. 29, 1864. 

Lucius Trueman, ist Lieut, of Co. 



;^70 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



E, 42d Pa. Vols., May 20, 1861 ; 
Quartermaster 190th, June 6, 1864; 
mustered out with his regiment, June 
28, 1865. 

Joshua E. Dver, 2(1 Lieut, of Co. 
D, 65th Pa. Vols., Dec. 8, 1864 ; died 
in service, date unknown. 

Edwin Mattson, 2d Lieut, of Co, 
A, 59th Pa. Vols., Oct. I, 1852; ist 
Lieut, May i, 1863; mustered out 
with his company, Nov. i, 1864; now 
residing at Birmingham. 

Joseph R. T. Coaxes, ist Lieut, of 
Co. C, 30th Pa. Vols., May 31, 1861; 
Captain of Co. C, Nov. 14, 1862; 
Major by brevet, and mustered out, 
June 13, 1864. 

Edward Larkin, ist Lieut, of Co. 
C, 30th Pa. Vols., Nov. 14, 1862 ; 
mustered out, June 13, 1864. 

John H. Taylor, 2d Lieut, of Co. 
C, 30th Pa. Vols., May 31, 1861 ; 
killed at South Mountain, Sept. 14, 
1862. 

John M. Thompson, 2d Lieut, of 
Co. C, 30th Pa. Vols., Nov. 13, 1862 ; 
mustered out Avith his regiment. 

Joseph P. Drew, ist Lieut, of Co. 

F, 30th Pa. Vols., Nov. i, 1862; 
Captain, Oct. i, 1863 ; mustered out 
with his company. 

Henry Huddleson, ist Lieut, of 
Co. F, 30th Pa. Vols., May 30, 1861 ; 
resigned, Aug. 16, 1861. 

John F. Gorman, 2d Lieut, of Co. 
F, 30th Pa. Vols., Nov. i, 1862; ist 
Lieut. Oct. I, 1863; mustered out 
with his company. 

James S. Peters, 2d Lieut. May 
30, 1 861, Co. F, 30th Pa. Vols. ; hon- 
orably discharged June 2, 1862. 

John McDaniels, promoted to 2d 
Lieut, of Co. F, 30th Pa. Vols., from 
ist Sergeant, Oct. 1,1863; missing 
in action. May 30, 1864. 

Samuel Williamson, ist Lieut, of 



Co. H, 65th Pa. Vols., Oct. 14, 1862 ; 
killed in action at Williamsburg Road, 
Jan. 15, 1863. 

William Lewis, Lieut. Col. of the 
65th Pa. Vols., Nov. I, 1862; dis- 
charged April 29, 1864. 

Allsha Stetson, Captain of Co. 
C, 65th Pa. Vols., Jan 26, 1862 ; 
mustered out Oct. 10, 1864. 

William R. Thatcher, ist Lieut, 
of Co. I, 77th Vols., March 30, 1862; 
no company records ; regiment or- 
ganized at Pittsburg, Oct. 15, 1861, 
for three years service ; mustered out 
at Victoria, Texas, Oct. 6, 1865. 

Dr. Joseph F. Shoemaker, As- 
sistant Surgeon of the 88th Vols., 
Aug. 15, 1862; Surgeon of the 56th, 
March 25, 1865 ; mustered out July 
I, 1865. 

J. B. W. Aydelott, ist Lieut, of 
Co. H, 95th Vols., Oct. I, 1861 ; 
Captain, Sept. 24, 1862 ; mustered 
out for promotion, July 3, 1863. 

Sketchley Morton, Jr., ist Lieut, 
of Co. I, 97th Pa. Vols., Nov. 19, 
1861, Colonel Guss, commanding, 
died in the hospital at Hilton Head, 
S. C, Nov. 12, 1862, of yellow fever, 
aged 21 years. From among the 
several obituaries written upon the 
death of this young officer, son of 
Judge Sketchley Morton, of Spring- 
field, and extolling his patriotism and 
devotion to the cause of the Federal 
Union, I copy a poetical one, which 
I deem worthy of insertion here. It 
is, I believe, from the scholarly pen of 
the Rev. John Pleasonton Du Hamel, 
Rector of the Church of the Redemp- 
tion, Philadelphia : 

" On the Death of 
T.iEUT. Sketchley Morton, Jr. 
A iiol)le youth, of noble lineage, 
Descended of the man whose patriot deed, 
Oave independence to our glorious Union ; 



11IST(JKY OF GlIESTEK. 



:]7l 



Aye, set his Stale, tlie Keystone, in the arch 

( )f this loved Temple of our Liberty. 

The name of Morton — when the nation's fate, 

Poised in the dubious scales of destiny, 

( JV/io doubts may read,) the balance shook, 

and to 
The side of Freedom, sent the quivering beam. 

Nor yet unworthy such ancestry he. 

For whose death, untimely, many true hearts 

Are bleeding secretly and unconsoled. 

Sad and inauspicious was the morn. 

He quit the paternal roof, to join him to 

The adventurous course of war. Departing 

thence, 
Three times he turned, while still remotely near, 
To look as often on his dear old home. 
The superstitious said 'twas omen fraught 
With ill — the wiser thought not so. Sad is 
The sequel. Weary wore away the days — 
Weeks lengthening months, that brought no 

tidings 
Of him absent. Long were the intervals, 
Keen the suspense, through periods infinite 
They seemed, that fond hearts ^^•alched and 

waited oft ; 
And oft were cheered by warm assurance. 
That all went prosperously — delusive hope ! 
Of orange groves — of gardens beautiful 
He wrote — of flow ers such as grow not in his 
Northern home, of vast estates and mansions 
Of grey mem'ry. Seldom and modestly 
Of deeds himself had done. How when it 

chanced 
The wearied sentinel slept on his post. 
He loving discipline, but mercy more. 
His kind entreaties interposed, and saved 
Him from inglorious death, for nolder end. 
And the bi'ave generous hearts that mourn 

him dead. 
Loved him in life, fought by his side, and would 
Have died forhim. Others have had ambitions, 
He but one — to serve his country. 'Twas for 
This, we all foi"sook, home, business, pleasure, 
All ; life's many golden dreams ; loves, filial 
And fraternal ; the love of sisters. Aye, 
Her to whom he e'en from boyish days 
Affianced, he resigned. No party flame, 
The rancor of no sect, his zeal inspired ; 
These were strange fires— \\\'i was a fervid, pure. 
And self-consuming love of country. 'Twas 
For this he died— bless'd martyryouth ! Happy ! 
If in that fatal fever land, where so 
Rankly grows the Upas tree of Treason, 



From his sacred dust may spring tlie nobler 

Tree of Liberty — though in ungenial 

Soil. Thrice happy 1 if his spirit lingering 

There, may win unloyal hearts to love 

A Government that never wronged them, 

would 
Have cherished them as children erring oft, 
Weeps o'er their woes, and pities -while it 

strikes:^ 

George W. Duffee, 2d Lieut, of 
Co. I, 97th Pa. Vols., Feb. 5, 1864; 
ist Lieut. Feb. 6, 1864; Captain, 
Dec. 2, 1864; mustered out with his 
company, Dec. 28, 1864. 

Annesley Newlin Morton, en = 
tered the service as 2d Lieut, of Co. 
I, 97th Pa. Vols., Nov. 19, 1861 ; re- 
signed, April 16, 1862, (^by the medi- 
cal advice of one of my best and oldest 
friends. Dr. George Edward Cooper, 
Surgeon of the U. S. Army.) He re- 
entered the service as a private in the 
Anderson Cavalry, (15th Pa. Cavalry,) 
1 60th Pa. Vols., Oct. 1862 ; pro- 
moted to ist Lieut, of Co. I, April 3, 
1863 ; mustered out of service at Nash- 
ville, Tenn., June 21, 1865; now 
conveyancer in Philadelphia, of the 
firm of Elsasser &: Morton. The Lieut. 
Col., of the 97th Pa. Vols., was my 
old friend at West Point, Augustus P, 
DuER, now a resident of West Chester. 
We passed three years very pleasantly 
together at the Military Academy, 
from 1838 to 1841 ; he entered the 
institution one year before I did ; 
served during the Mexican war, in the 
army, and with the 97th from its 
formation, Oct. 7, 1861, until April 
8, 1864, when he was honorably dis- 
charged from the service. 

James Williams, 2d Lieut. Co. I, 
97th Pa. Vols., April 16, 1862; re- 
signed commission, Sept. i, 1862. 

W. H. H. Gibson, 2d Lieut. Co. I, 
97th Pa. Vols., Feb. 6, 1862 ; ist Lt. 
Dec. 2, 1864; mustered out with co. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



Geokce W. MiDDi.Eiox, 2(1 Lieut. 
Co. I, 97th Pa. Vols., Dec. 2, 1864; 
mustered out with company. 

William S. Mendenhall, Captain 
Co. D, 97th Pa. Vols., Sept. 20, 1861 ; 
honorably discharged at the expiration 
of his term of service, Oct. 4, 1864. 

Capt. W. S. Mendenhall, dealer in 
ladies' furnishinggoods, on Market St., 
Wilmington, Delaware, died on Dec. 
4, 1875, '" ^""'^ forty-sixth year. He 
was born near Chadd's Ford, Delaware 
County, Oct. 13, 1830, and learned the 
printing trade at West Chester. When 
the Mexican War broke out, though only 
sixteen years old, he volunteered in 
Capt. Charles J. Biddle's company, of 
Philadelphia, which became part of the 
ist regiment U. S. Voltigeurs, and 
served throughout that war, being twice 
wounded. Upon his return home in 
the winter of 1848, he joined a party for 
California, and went around Cape Horn 
in a sailing vessel, making a voyage of 
eight months and fourteen days to San 
Francisco. After indifferent success 
in gold hunting, he joined one of Col. 
Fremont's exploring parties in South- 
ern California, and subsequently for 
ten years, led an adventurous life, en- 
gaged in mining, i^rospecting, explor- 
ing, and campaigning against the In- 
dian. Returning East in 1858, he 
spent two years in the South, and saw 
liie preparations which were in progress 
there for war. Escaping to the North, 
he reached this city in time to join the 
1st Delaware Regt. (three months), 
which was just then organizing, under 
Col. Lockwood, and served with it until 
it was mustered out. He then raised a 
company in Delaware County for Col. 
Guss's 97th Penn. Vol., and served 
with it for three years, being twice 
wounded, and finally mustered out on 
account of his injuries. 



Henry Odiorne, ist Lieut. Co. D, 
97th Pa. Vols., June i, 1864 ; Captain, 
Dec. 3, 1864; died of wounds received 
in battle, Jan. 15, 1865. Captain 
Odiorne was a relative of the Willcox 
family of "Ivy Mills." 

Isaac B. Taylor, 2d Lieut Co. D, 
97th Pa. Vols., June 1, 1864: istl>ieut. 
Dec. 3, 1864; Captain, Feb. 15, 1865, 
mustered out with command. 

George W. Williams, ist Lieut. 
Co. D, 97th Pa. Vols., Sept. 9, 1861 ; 
honorably discharged, July 29, 1863. 
Re-entered service for 100 days, Emer- 
gency Vols, as Captain Co. D, 197th. 

David W. Odiorne, 2d Lieut. Co. 
D, 97th Pa. Vols., Dec. 5, 1864; ist 
Lieut. Feb. 15, 1865 ; out of service with 
his company, Aug. 28, 1865. 

Jesse L. Cummings, Captain Co. 
G, 97th Pa. Vols., Oct. 15, 1861 ; re- 
signed May 5, 1862. 

Caleb Hoopes, ist Lieut. Co. G, 
of the 97th Pa. Vols., Oct. 15, 1861; 
Captain Oct. 23, 1862; honorably dis- 
charged Oct. 17, 1864. 

Washington W. James, Captain 
Co. G, of the 97th Pa. Vols., May i, 
1865 ; mustered out with command. 

Gasow.ay O. Yarnall, ist Lieut. 
Co. G. 97th Pa. Vols., Oct. 23, 1862 ; 
honorably discharged Jan. 27, 1865. 

JosiAH Bird, ist Lieut, of same, May 
I, 1865 ; mustered out with company. 

Joseph M. Borrell, 2d Lieut, of 
same, Oct. 15, 1861 ; resigned com- 
mission Nov. 13, 1863. 

William H. Eves, 2d Lieut, of same, 
Nov. 13, 1863; honorably discharged 
from the service, Oct. 22, 1864. 

Jeremiah Yoast, 2d Lieut, of same. 
May I, 1865; mustered out of service 
with his company. 

Wm. H. Hughes, 2d Lieut. Co. I, 
io6th Pa. Vols., Mar. i, 1863; mus- 
tered out Sept. 10, 1S64. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



OT'Q 



Marion Litzenberg, 2d Lieut. Co. 
I, 2d Pa. Artillery, 112th Pa. Vols., 
three years service, Mar. 8, 1S65 ; ist 
Lieut. Nov. 30, 1864, retained in the 
service with "Freedmen's Bureau;" 
after the discharge of his regiment. 

Robert McCourt, 2d Lieut. Co. 
A, 113th Pa. Vols., 1 2th cavalry, 3 
years service, April 9, 1864; honora- 
bly discharged, Dec. 8, 1864. 

James Cliff, ist Lieut. Co. E, 119th 
Pa. Vols., Nov. 9, 1862 ; Captain, May 
12, 1864; out with CO., June 19, 1865. 

William C. Gray, Captain Co. E, 
1 19th Pa. Vols., Sept. i, 1862: Major, 
May 13, 1864; Lieut. Col., April 6, 
1865 ; mustered out with the regiment 
June 19, 1865. 

Simon Litzenburg, Captain Co. B, 
124th Pa. Vols., Aug. 6, 1862 ; Lieut. 
Col., Aug. 16, 1862; out with regt. 
May 16, 1863. 

John Woodcock, ist Lieut. Co. B, 
124th Pa. Vols., Aug. 9, 1862; Cap- 
tain, Aug. 16, 1862; out of service 
with his company May 16, 1863 ; Cap- 
tain of Co. F, 29th Emergency Vols., 
June 20, 1863; out with company, 
Aug. I, 1863. 

Howard McIlvain, y/zw^r i.<-/ Lt. 
of Durrell's Battery, 104th Pa. Vols., 
born Oct. 26, 1834, mortally wounded 
at Warrington, Va., and died Nov. 15, 
1862, son of William and Sarah (Mor- 
ton) Mcllvain, of Reading, and grand- 
son of the late Aaron and Ann Crosby 
Morton of Ridley. 

I copy from the New York Tribune. 
— "From Gen. Burnside's Army, on 
the Front near Warrington Junction, 
Nov. 16, 1862. 

An attack of the enemy upon the 
baggage train of the ist and 2d brigades 
(Gens. Naglee and Ferrero)of Sturgis's 
yesterday forenoon, which resulted in 
the death of Lieut. Howard Mcllvain, 



of Durell's Battery, and which came 
very near resulting in the destruction 
or capture of a portion of the train. 

Capt. Durell's Battery, occupyingan 
exceedingly exposed position, with- 
stood for something like an hour the fire 
from the heavy twenty-pounds guns. 
Early in the fight Lieut. Howard Mc- 
llvain was struck by a shell, which 
carried away his arm, side, thigh, and 
hip, laying open his entrails and caus- 
ing one of the most fearful wounds ever 
recorded. 

The brave and unfortunate young 
man lay in most horrible agony, raving 
from pain a great portion of the time, 
from the moment ofreceiving his wound 
till eight o'clock this morning, when 
he was relieved from his sufferings by 
death. He said to a friend, as he lay 
writing in agony, that he was not afraid 
to die ; he only wished that death might 
come soon to rid him of the dreadful 
pain he suffered. 

The deceased was from Reading, 
Pennsylvania, and had been in the ser- 
vice since the opening of the war, hav- 
ing served with Capt Durell in the three 
months volunteers. In September, 
1861, the present Durell's Battery was 
sworn into the service of the United 
States, and has since lieen constantly 
employed. All who have come in con- 
tact with Lieut. Mcllvain pronounced 
him a young man of remarkable promise 
and most excellent qualities, social and 
otherwise, and one who would have 
made a noteworthy mark in the world 
had he been spared. He is universal- 
ly lamented in this corps, with which 
he had been connected since the nth 
of last August, and Capt. Durell mourns 
in him his best and most trustworthy 
officer, which is saying nothing deroga- 
tory to the other brave men in his com- 
mand." 



374 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



Rai.i'H HrcKi.KY, 211(1 Licui. C\). B, 
124th Pa. Vols., Aug. 9, 1862; ist 
Lieut. Aug. 16, 1862; discharged with 
company. Captain Co. I, 197th Pa. 
Vols., July 23, 1864; mustered out 
with his company, Nov. 11, 1864. 

W. H. LnzENBERG, 2d Ivieut. Co. 
B, 124th Pa. Vols., Aug. 16, 1862; 
mustered out with company. 

NoRKis L. Yarnall, Captain Co. 
D, 124th Pa. Vols., Aug. II, 1862; 
mustered out May 16, 1863. Lieut. 
Col. 29th Emergency Regt., June 23, 
1863 to Aug. 3, 1863. 

Joseph Pratt, ist Lieut. Co. D, 
124th Pa. Vols., Aug. II, 1862 ; mus- 
tered out with his company. 

L Lawrence Haldeman, 2d Lieut. 
Co. D, 1 24th Pa. Vols. , Aug. 1 1 , 1 862 ; 
Major, Aug. 18, 1862; nuistered out of ; 
service with regiment. j 

Joseph G. Cummings, 2d Lieut. Co. | 
D, 124th Pa. Vols., Aug. 16, 1862 ; I 
served till expiration of term. 1 

James Barton, Jr., Captain Co. H, | 
124th Pa. Vols., Aug. 15, 1862 ; mus- 
tered out of service with company. May 
16, 1863. Captain Co. A, 197th Pa. 
Vols., July 16, 186410 Nov. II, 1864. 

Phh.ip D. Haines, ist Lieut. Co. 
G, 124th Pa. Vols., Aug. 15, 1862; 
mustered out with command. 

William S. Abel, 2d Lieut, of same, 
same record. 

H. McAlllster, Jr., ist Lieut. Co. 
G, 1 60th Pa. Vols., 15th cavalry. Mar. 
I, 1863 ; Captain, May 8, 1863; Major, 
June I, 1865 ; mustered out as Cai)tain, 
June 21, 1865. 

Edwin Middleton, Jr., 2d Lt. Co. 
G, 1 60th Pa. Vols., May 29, 1865 ; 
mustered out as ist Sergeant. 

Archer Nevins Martin, of Lenni 
Mills, 2d Lieut, of Co. I, i6ist Pa. 
Vols., i6th cavalry, Sept. 23, 1862; 
ist Lieut. May 21, 1863: Ca])tain. 



June 4, 1863; Brevet Major, Mar. 13, 
1865 ; honorably discharged May 26, 
1865 ; son of Robert L. and Adelaide 
Nevins Martin, of Lenni. 

George W. Eachus, Quartermaster 
20th Pa. Cavalry, i8ist Vols., April 
1,1865; three years' service; mustered 
out June 23, 1865. 

E. E. Bartleson, 2d Lieut. Co. F, 
i8ist Pa. Vols., April i, 1865 ; ist 
Lieut. April 23, 1865 ;. mustered out 
with ist Provisional Cavalry, Co. i, 
July 13, 1865. 

James C. Hinkson, ist Lieut. Co. 
A, 197th Pa. Vols., July 15, 1864; 
mustered out Nov. 11, 1864. 

Thomas H. Berry, 2d Lieut, of 
same ; record same. 

R. T. Williams, ist Lieut. Co. I, 
same regt. and record. 

James Carrick, 2d Lieut, of same, 
and same record. 

R. G. Vanzant, 2d Lieut. Co. B, 
202d Pa. Vols., Sept. 12, 1864; out 
with company, June 22, 1865. 

Thomas M. Allen, promoted to 2d 
Lieut. Co. E, 26th Vols., Feb. 22, 
1862 ; out June 18, 1864. 

William L. Grubb, Captain Co. K, 
26th Pa. Vols., May 27, 1861 ; resign- 
ed from ill health. 

John F. Meekins, Orderly Sergeant, 
Co. K, May 26, 1861 ; elected ist 
Lieut. Jan. 7, 1862 ; Captain, July 15, 
1862; killed at the second battle of 
Bull Run, Aug, 29, 1862. 

James F. Searv, entered the service 
as 4th Sergeant of Co. K, 26th Pa. 
Vols., May 1861 ; 2d Lieut. July 15, 
1862; ist Lieut. April i, 1863; Caj)- 
tain, Feb. 4, 1864; mustered out of 
the service, June 18, 1864. 

From Price's History of the ()']th 
Fa. Vols., (1875) I add: 

Charles H. Hannum, 2d Lieut-, 
age 24, a carpenter, Concordvillc, mus- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



75 



tered Sept. 6, 1861, for 3 years; pro- 
moted to ist Sergeant, July 30, 1863, 
promoted to 2d Lieut., June 1, 1864, 
but was not mustered. 

John W. Brooks, 2d Lieut., age 20, 
blacksmith, Concordville, mustered as 
private, Sept. 6, 1861, for 3 years; pro- 
moted to Corporal for faithful service 
Oct. 2, 1862, was re-mustered Mar. 15, 
1864; wounded in action at Foster's 
Place, Va., May 18, 1864; promoted 
to 2d Lieut., Feb. 15, 1865, for gallant 
service at Fort Fisher. 

Philip E. Hannum, ist Sergeant, 
age 21, farmer, Concord, mustered as 
private Sept. 6, 1861, for 3 years; 
wounded in action at Foster's Place, 
Va., promoted to Sergeant, Dec. 5, 
1864; again wounded in action at Fort 
Fisher, Jan. 15, 1865, promoted to ist 
Sergeant, Feb. 15, 1865 ; mustered out 
with Company, Aug. 28, 1865. Served 
continuously with Company in all en- 
gagements. 

XL. 

A FEW items from the newspapers of 
the day may be deemed interesting. In 
the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin of 
Oct. 15, 1861, it is reported that "Com- 
pany I, Captain George W. Hawkins, 
from Delaware County, was mustered 
into Col. Guss's regiment, now in camp 
at West Chester, on the 7th inst. ; ist 
Lieutenant, Sketchley Morton, Jun'r; 
2d Lieutenant, Annesley N. Morton. 
It is composed mostly of Delaware 
County men, and is a very fine com- 
pany. Some of the very best (young) 
men in that county being enrolled in 
it." 

In The Delaware County Repiiblica7i 
of Feb. 14, 1862, isthisnotice: "Vol- 
unteers Wanted. Recruits by ex- 
pressing their preference, can be mus- 



tered into Col. H. R. Guss's Rifle Regi- 
ment, (97th Pennsylvania Volunteers) 
now stationed at Port Royal, South 
Carolina, or any other regiment now 
organizing, or organized in the Union 
Army. Minors must bring the written 
consent of their parents or guardians. 
Lieutenant Sketchley Morton, Jr. ; Ser- 
geant John C. Brubaker of the 97th 
regiment Pa. Vols., recruiting at the 
Town Hall, Chester." 

From the Republican, of Chester, 
Feb. II, 1862, I copy the following, 
as it supplies an omission in the records 
of the company mentioned: "We 
notice the election of 2d Lieut. Robert 
L. Bodine, which took place a few 
weeks since, to the captaincy of Com- 
pany K, 26th regiment, Pa. Vols., now 
at Port Tobacco, in place of Captain 
William L. Grubb, who resigned his 
position on account of ill-health. Capt. 
Bodine was elected over Lieut. Robin- 
son by a large majority. Robinson has 
since resigned and returned to his home, 
and Orderly Sergeant Meekins has been 
elected to fill the vacancy." 

From the Adjutant General's Report 
for 1866, I have compiled a list of the 
officers in the Emergency Volunteers 
of 1862 and '63, and of the Militia of 
Delaware County, as follows: 

The 1 6th Regiment of Pennsylvania 
Militiawas formed but not mustered in- 
to service, yet were in active duty in the 
field for about ten days previous to, and 
during the battle of Antietam, the regi- 
ment having been sent to Hagerstown, 
Md. , to support McClellan, but after the 
defeat of the enemy their services were 
not needed. The regiment was form- 
ed Sept. II, 1862. The list of the 
officers from Delaware County is as fol- 
lows : 

Cc/o«<?/— Joseph M. Willcox, Delaware County. 
U. Co/.— William H. Eagle, Lancaster. 
i1/<i;/<)r— Charles A. Litzenberg, Darby. 



376 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



Adjutant — JosiAH Jackson, Kennett Square. 
Quartcymastcr—lowti J. Rowland, Media. 

Company B. 
|i 'NATHAN Kershaw, Captain. 
.•\iiKAM LowRY, i.r^ Lieut. 
John W. Beck, id Lieut. 

Company C. 
J. .M. Broomall, Captain. 
William Ormsby, \st Lieut. 
John C. Price, id Lieut. 

Company D. 
John H. Barton, Captain. 
\\'iLLiAM Walter, ist Lieut. 
E. S. Leedom, 20? Lieut. 

Company E. 
Amos Bonsall, Captain. 
James Shillingford, ist Lieut. 
Levi Lukens, id Lieut. 

Company F. 
JosHi'H WiLLcox, Captain. 
Wm. H. ]\Iiller, I j/ /,?>«/. 
(Ieorc.e W. Eachvs, id Lieut. 

Company H. 
John C. Andrews, Captain. 
George S. Patchell, \st Lieut. 
Joseph L. Lewis, id Lieut. 

In the 24th regiment of Militia, form- 
ed at the same time, there was a com- 
pany from Delaware Co. , — Co. I, James 
Kirkman, Captain; John Britton, ist 
Lieut, and Nathan Van Horn, 2d Lieut. 

Bknj. N. Brooke, Captain of Co. 
G, 28th Emergency Vols., June 23, 
1 863 ; absent sick when his company 
was mustered out of service. 

Frank Fennimore, ist Lieut, of Co. 
G, 28th Emergency Vols., June 23, 
1863 ; mustered out with his company, 
July 27, 1863. 

Samuel L. Craig, 2d Lieut, of Co. 
G, Emergency Vols. ; same record. 

The 29th Emergency Volunteers had 
from the county, the following officers 
of companies and regiments in service 
from June 19, 1863 to Aug. i, 1863. 
John M. Broomall, Capt. Co. C. 

William Ormsby, istLt. Co. C. 

Thomas F. Beatty, 2d Lt. Co. C. 

Ralph Buckley, istLt. Co. F. 

H. G. Hotchkin, 2d Lt. Co. F. 

Alfred Bunting, Capt. Co. G. 

W.H.Thatcher, istT,t. Co.G. 

Ilenrv B. 'I avlor, 2d Lt. Co. G. 



J. C. Andrews, Capt. Co. H. 

George P. Patchell, istLt. Co. H. 

Joseph L. Lewis, 2d Lt. Co. H. 

Joseph Pratt, Capt. Co. L 

C. D. M. Broomall, istLt. Co. L 

The 37th regiment, 90 days militia, 
mustered in July i, 1863, and out in 
Aug. 2, 1863, had: 
William Frick, Capt. Co. A. 

Edward M. Lyons, ist Lt. Co. A. 

William G. Price, 2d Lt. Co. A. 

Harry Huddleson, Capt. Co. F. 

Joseph McCoy, ist Lt. Co. F. 

Samuel Bowker, 2d Ix. Co. F. 

The total expense incurred by the 
State of Pennsylvania, in raising volun- 
teer forces from 1861 to 1871, was^3,- 
138,480. This does not, however, in- 
clude the expenses of the Militiamen, 
called in the report of the Adjutant 
General the Emergency Volunteers 
and Militia, the amount of which is 
not given separately in the statement 
published by the United States authori- 
ties. 

I give here muster-roll of two Emer- 
gency Companies from Chester in 1 862. 

Company K, \oth Pa. Militia. 

CHKSTER CCARDS. 
William R. Thatcher, Captain. 
Lewis M. Larkin, \st Lieut. 
William G. Vv.\z^, id Lieut. 
Sergeants. 

1. Henry Mcllvaine, 3. Wm. G. Evans, 

2. J. H. Omensetter, 4. William C. Diibrec, 

5. Joseph H. Hinksoii. 
Cotporah. 

1. William D. Penncll, 5. George E. Darlington, 

2. James Morgan, 6. John W. Ottey, 

3. Joel Lane, 7. Richard F. Flickwir, 

4. David M. Johnson, 8. Frank R. Shoemaker. 

Drummer — Charles Dickerson. 
Privates. 
David Appleby, Theodore Bell, 

William Appleby, George Bottomly; 

Walter J. Arnold, Nathan Berry, 

Benj'n F. Biichu, James F. Brcckenridge, 

J. EUwood Black, I. Engle Cochran, 

Joseph Blakeley, John Cunliff, 

William Blakeley, Archibald Clark, 

Joseph Brewster, John Clark, 

John Bowers, George Cadnian, 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



77 



Allen Carr, 
James Dunkerly, 
Julius A. Dutton, 
Alfred O. Deshong, 
Joshua P. Eyre, Jr., 
Martin Farraday, 
James Glennin, 
Henry Greenwood, 
Henry C. Grubb, 
William Harvey, 
Henry M. Hinkson, 
Charles Hinkson, 
Edwin Hewitt, 
Amos Holt, 
David Holstein, 
John Hinkson, 
Henry Hinkson, 
Joseph Holt, 
John Holt, 
Francis llorricks, 
Samuel Haigh, 
J. Washington Irving, 
Benjamin Irving, 
John Israel, 
R. Morgan Johnson, 
Ben. D. Johnson, 
Mordecai Larkin, 
Samuel W. Loveland, 



Henry Lukens, 
Theodore Lukens, 
James McClymont, 
John F. McFall, 
John S. McFadden, 
Benjamin Mason, 
William McConnell, 
Daniel McCoUum, 
Hampden Morris, 
William Mackey, 
Isaac Newton, Jr., 
Wm. H. Neuer. 
David T. Newlin, 
Wm. J. Ogleby, 
Charles D. Pennell, 
Samuel C. Price, 
William Patterson, 
John F. Robinson, 
Samuel H. Stevenson, 
Charles A. Story, Jr., 
George St. Ledger, 
John Eyre Shaw, 
Arnold Shaw, 
Henry B. Taylor, 
William Vernon, 
Lewis D. Wheaton, 
Hiram Williams, 
Preston E. Wilson. 



Co. B, \bth Pa. Militia; organized Sept. 17, 
1862; discharged Sept. 25,1862,- called 

"THK. MECHANIC RIFLES OF CHESTER." 
Jonathan Kersh.-\w, Captain. 
Abram Lovvry, ist Lieut. 
John W. Buck, id Lieut. 

Sergeants. 

1. George W. Wilson, 3. Charles R. Sweeney, 

2. George Smith, 4. Hugh Hatton, 

S. William D. PuUen. 
Corporals. 

1. Richard Turner, 5. Nath'l P. Chadwick, 

2. Thomas H. Berry, 6. Peter Goff, 

3. Harry A. Hopple, 7. Charles Stringfellow, 

4. Thomas H. Thompson, 8. William Schofield. 

Musicians. 
JohnCnlin, James G. Hunter. 

I''ri7'ates. 

William Latch, 



John Booth, 
Charles Barger, 
Thomas Berry, 
John Brankin, 
Edward Briley, 
Angelo D. Boiga, 
Enos F. Cloud, 
Edward E. Culin, 
John Culin, 
John J. Clark, 
George Clouser, 
William H. Dickinson, 
John Dunkerley, 
Jesse Galligher, 
Jacob Grider, Jr., 
James Haws, 



Charles Martien, 
James Morris, 
Theo. V. Rosevelt, 
Joseph Rein, 
John Russell, 
Charles Roberts, 
William Sweeney, 
William Schofield, 
William Smith, 
Robert Smith, Jr., 
John Sykes, 
Richard Turner, 
E. F. Taylor, 
Richard T. Tin-ner, 
John W. Warren. 



Having copies of the muster rolls 
of the " Darby Rangers," Captain 



Charles A. Litzenberger, 69 men ; of 
" The Delaware County Guards," 
Capt. John H. Barton, 69 men, from 
Concord and Aston ; of Capt. Joseph 
Willcox's company of 69 men, from 
Thornbury and Edgmont Townships ; 
of "Gideon's Band," Capt. Norris 
L. Yarnall, then Sheriff of the County, 
which consisted of 99 men ; of the 
" Delaware County Fusileers," Capt. 
Simon Litzenberg, 84 men ; of Capt. 
James Barton, Jr 's company, con- 
sisting of 93 men, all told, in the ser- 
vice during the year 1862; of the 
" Upland Volunteers," Capt. Geo. K. 
Crozer, in service, July, 1863; and 
Capt. James Barton, Jr.'s 100 days 
men, in 1864, I give the lists inser- 
tion here, because, although not of 
great moment at present, they will be, 
in the future, matters exceedingly in- 
teresting to the descendants of those 
who served, or were ready to serve 
their country in the hour of her direst 
need. These companies were com- 
posed of young men, many of them of 
wealth, standing and influence — the 
best material of the county. 

Company B, \i/^th Penna. ]'olitiitcers. 

MISTER ROLL OF THE UEL.WVARE COUNTY 
Fl'SILEERS. 
Simon Litzenberg, Captain. 
John Woodcock, ist Lieut. 
Ralph Buckley, 2it Lieut. 
Sergeants. 

1. W. H. Litzenberg, 3. Roswell T. Williams, 

2. James Carrick, 4. Thomas Pilling, 

5. John Shaw. 
Corporats. 

5. Edward Boden, 

6. Lewis P. Watkin, 
zer, 7. John B. Trainer, 

8. Thomas H. Kay. 
Musicians. 

Albert M. Neill. 
Wagoner — John Beggs. 
Prizatcs. 

Jerome Byre, 
Joseph H. Brensinger, 
Charles W. Broadbent, 
Peter Barands, 
William Brewster, 
Abraham Brewster, 



. John B. Silby, 

. Israel Thomas, 

. Alexander E. Cr 

. William Baggs, 

George Heath, 



John Ashworth, 
George W. Ayres, 
James R. Abernethy, 
Joseph Barlow, 
Jacob Barlow, 
Edwin Blakeley, 



IIISTOKY OF CJIESTEH, 



Edward Cooper, 
Thomas Chambers, 
Charles Creamer, 
Daniel Crowder, 
John M. T. Doran, 
William Dobbins, 
Thomas H. Diitton, 
William E. Daniels, 
Elmer Edwards, 
John Fildes, 
George Fildes, 
Michael Fitzgerald, 
William B. Farra, 
John Fryer, 
Alorris Green, 
Samuel Greenwood, 
Thomas Hill, 
Thomas J. Heron, 
William Henry, 
Hiram Hyzer, 
William Hyzer, 
William H. Henderson, 
John L. Henderson, 
Cieorge Hormatt, 
John Hoofstitler, 
William H. Haas, 
Henry Hackman, 
Abram Hunter, 
Joseph S. Johnson, 
William H. Johnson, 
Edward Kay, 
Thomas W. Kent, 
Andrew Kinkaid, 
Gardiner Kelly, 
Crawford Kugler, 
Thomas Lomax, 



-M^mhcw Lnniax, 
William Lamey, 
James Logan, 
John A. Leib, 
Rufus K. Lear, 
Arthur McConville, 
Joseph McCoy, 
John Major, 
William Major, 
Chandler Marshman, 
Minshall Martin, 
James Makin, 
Jonas McUor, 
William Nicholson, 
Jesse W. Paist, 
John Patterson, 
Richard Pyott, 
George Robinson, 
Alfred Roebuck, 
Edward D. Sipler, 
George H. Shillingford, 
John Schofield, 
Henry Shaw, 
Samuel Stirk, 
Samuel Squibb, 
George Shermik, 
William Taylor, 
James Toomes, 
Richard Toomes, 
James Trainor, 
John S. Wilkinson, 
Benjamin Walraven, 
Edward Worrell, 
Joseph Waddle, 
Frederick Young, 
Enos Yates. 



[1-- 



the Delaware County Republican.] 



Gideon's Band. — The Sheriff of 
Delaware County, Norris L. Yar- 
XALL, is now at the head of over one 
hundred young men who have vohin- 
teered at the call of their country to 
go fortli to endure the privations of 
camp-life, the toils of the march, and 
the perils of the battle field, to protect 
u.s in our property and our homes. In 
the roll which we annex, our readers 
will recognize the names of the sons 
of our best citizens, who have left the 
comforts of easy homes, and the career 
of prosperous business for the duty to 
which their country calls them, and to 
which their manly patriotism so gen- 
erously and freely responds. We con- 
gratulate them and their friends on hav- 
ing a gentleman so capable as Sheriff 



Varnall for their Captain, one whose 
military knowledge peculiarly fits him 
for the position he has assumed. We 
predict for him entire success in his 
patriotic efforts to serve his country. 
The following is a copy of the mus- 
ter roll of the Company referred to, 
known as Co. D, 124th Pa. Vols., 
mustered into service Aug. 11, 1862; 
and out, May 15, 1863. 

NoKKis L. Vaknall, Captain, 
\. Law. Haldrman, \st Lieut, 
Joseph Pkatt, 2d Lieut. 

Privates, 



James B. Aitkin, 
J, Frank Black, 
Benjamin Brooke, 
Henry Black, 
Samuel Boker, 
William L. Bittle, 
William B. Broomall, 
William H. Beatty, 
Hunter Brooke, 
David Bradbury, 
Chas. D, M. Broomhall, 
Davis Broomall, 
William Batting, 
Silas Baker, 
Daniel B. Baker, 
Stephen I\L Blazier, 
Richard R. Cummins, 
J. Roland Cochran, 
Michael Crouse, 
Joseph G. Cummins, 
James Cheetham, 
James Crozer, 
Jesse Darlington, 
William G. Davidson, 
Lorenzo F. Davis, 
James Dougherty, 
Henry Deny, 
Elias Eckfeldt, 
George Eplee, 
Charles j. Esry, 
Frederick Eckfeldt, 
William Y. Esbin, 
Anderson Fielding, 
Jabez F. Fryer, 
Thomas Fields, 
Milton Ford, 
Larkin Fairlamb, 
Thomas Fleming, 
George Gardner, 
William Gamble, 
John L. Grim, 
Benjamin T. Green, 
Edward B. Green, 
William H. Garrett, 
John H. Henderson, 
Canada Humes, 
William Howarlh, 
William Heyburn, 



Edward P. Hickman, 
Andrew J. Haws, 
Thomas Hance, Jr., 
Joseph J. Hall, 
Joel Hollingsworth, 
William Howard, 
Alfred Hannum, 
William H. Hoopes, 
John D. Howard, 
Brinton J. Hej'burn, 
James H. Haycock, 
William T.' Innes, 
Philip Johnson, 
Edward Jackson, 
Rufus King, 
N. C. Longmirc, 
Edward W. Lewis, 
W. J. McPherson, 
George D. Mdler, 
James Moore, 
James Newsome, 
Casper Pike, 
John Pugh, 
Aaron Perry, 
John Millson, 
Wm. L. Martin, 
Caleb T. Price, 
Samuel H. Palmer, 
Richard A. Passmore, 
John Palmer, 
John M. Pyle, 
James C. Sorber, 
George F. Springer, 
Benj. Frank Thomas, 
Jacob B. Richards, 
Menanda Slack, 
Miftlin W. Smith, 
Pennell Stackhouse, 
Edward W. Torbert, 
William P. Worrall, Jr 
Harry Williamson, 
Henry Warburton, 
Joel E. Watson, 
W. Wayne Vodges, 
Christian Wall, 
Walker Y. Wells, 
James Waters, 
William Yarnall, 



IIISTOKV OF CHESTER. 



379 



Companv II, i2^th Fa. Volunteers. 

DELAWARE COUNTY VOLUNTEERS. 
Muster Roll of Capt. Barton's Company. 

James Barton, Jr., Captain. 

Frank M. Naglee, i.st Lieut. 

William H. H. Clayton, z^/ Zz«<;. 
Sergeants. 

1. John M. Clayton, 3. William Pusey West, 

2. James JNIcDade, 4. William Knovvles, 

5. Robert J. Hanby. 
Corporals. 

1. William T. Shoemaker, 5. John B. McCay, Jr., 

2. Samuel K. Crozer, 6. Simon B. West, 

3. Lewis McGonegal, 7. John Peteis, 

4. Charles B. Roberts, 8. Clayton J. Rodeback. 

Musicians. 
J. P. Evans, George B. Hinkson. 

Wagoner — Ralph Welsh. 
Privates. 



Joseph A. Aimen, 
Joseph L. Arment, 
Ellis S. Baker, 
George S. Benson, 
Joseph H. Bonsall, 
Thomas Burk, 
William Burns, 
John W. Carr, 
Robert Casey, 
Joseph Cathcart, 
Thomas J. Carman, 
James P. Chadwick, 
William T. Chandler, 
Enos W. Clair, 
William T. Clayton, 
John B. Congleton, 
George K. Cross, 
William J. Crowther, 
Joseph Drake, 
John P. Duffy, 
Elias Eves, 
John Files, 
Ezekiel Ford, 
Robert M. Green, 
Alex. R. Gutterson, 
Frederick Hartley, 
William D. Howard, 
James C. Hinkson, 
Charles Hanthorn, 
Jonathan Heacock, 
Edward H. Hickman, 
Benjamin Hirst, 
Charles Jackson, 
John Jackson, 
Thomas H. Jackson, 
David Jones, 

Company D, i6th Pa. Militia. 

DELAWARE COUNTY GUARDS, 

0/ Concord and Aston. 

John H. Barton, Captain. 

William H. Walter, i.?^ Z^V?^/. 

Isaac H. Derrick, 2d Lieut. 

Zaddock Speakman, Ord'y Sergt. 
Privates. 
Elijah Bardsley, Edward Barton, 

John Baker, George E. Barnes 

49 



J. Ephraim Lobb, 
Robert McCall, 
Daniel McCue, 
Jesse D. Minshall, 
J. Wesley Miles, 
George Mills, 
John Mott, 
Philip Nawn, 
Samuel W. Neeld, 
Jesse Owen, 
George W. Poole, 
John W. Phillips, 
Harvey E. Pierce, 
Horatio N. Piatt, 
James Pyle, 
Owen Z. Pyle, 
John Palmer, 
James J. Piard, 
Isaac E. Price, 
M.aurice Ragan, 
Thomas Ryan, 
Cheyney H. Smith, 
Albert Smith, 
John Stadring, 
Joseph Taylor, 
Livingston Talley, 
John M. Temple, 
William Trainer, 
Daniel Trainer, 
William S. Vanhorn, 
Nehemiah Vansant, 
Simon H. White, 
John Whittington, 
Moses Williams, 
Thomas Wildes, 
Samuel R. Zebley. 



Thomas Bullock, 
E. E. Bartleson, 
Osburn Booth, 
Joseph Buckley, 
Jesse Booker, 
Alfred Broadbent, 
Wesley Clayton, 
Reuben Crowther, 
W. S. Congleton, 
Harry Cheetham, 
William Chandler, 
George Dutton, 
George Derrick, 
Jared Darlington, 
Albert Darlington, 
William Davis, 
Shelly Ford, 
James H. Finney, 
Robert A. Fulton, 
John Greenlee, 
Joseph Griffith, 
Isaac B. Gilpin, 
Patrick Gallagher, 
William Gartside, 
Samuel E. Hannum, 
George W. Hall, 
William Hannum, 
Joseph E. Hannum, 
Samuel N. Hill. 
Jesse K. Jester, 
Samuel Lenderman, 
Emmor S. Leedom, 

William 



Mordecai Lewis, 
George Lancaster, 
John Lamey, 
Thomas Mayguckin, 
James iMcMullin, 
Thomas McCall, Jr., 
Geo. W. McCrackin, 
Chas. G. McGinnes, 
Joseph Osbom, 
Joseph Paschall, 
Charles P. Peters, 
William R. Peters, 
Charles V. Peters, 
Eli Pyle, Jr., 
Vernon T. Pyle, 
William H. Porter, 
William T. Palmer, 
Michael Rhail, 
William H. Rigby, 
Jesse Scott, 
Aaron Swayne, 
R. G. Smith, 
Samuel Sweeten, 
John M. Smith, 
Robert L. Taylor, 
George Taylor, 
James S. Todd, 
Aaron Tyson, 
Joseph M. Wells, 
J. L. Weeden, 
John S. Wells, 
Charles P. Walter, 
P. Yarnall. 



Company F, l6ih Fa. Militia, in seii'ice 
Sept. II, \%(i2, for ten days. 

COMPANY FROM THORNBURY AND EDGMONT. 

Joseph Willcox, Captain. 
William Miller, i.r/ Lieut. 
George Eachus, 2d Lieut. 



Pri 
Albin W. Baker, 
Daniel Baker, 
Robert M. Burnett, 
Edwin M. Bittle, 
James Broomall, 
John J. Baker, 
William Broomall, 
Lewis Baker, 
Robert D. Baker, 
T. J. Baker, Jr., 
Davis Broomall, 
Mark Broomall, 
Hugh R. Cheyney, 
Charles M. Cheyney, 
George S. Cheyney, 
Timothy Donavan, 
William Eachus, 
Alfred B. Entriken, 
Evan Eachus, 
John W. Fryer, 
Edward P. Fryer, 
George L. Green, 
Abel Green, 
George S. Green, 
Smedley Green, 
Edmund Green, 



z'ates. 

Robert Gamble, 
George W. Hall, 
John T. Huddleson, 
Passmore Howard, 
Wm. H. Huddleson, 
Pierce Hemphill, 
William Hall, 
William Hines, 
Thomas W. Hemphill 
Edward P. Hickman, 
EUwood H. James, 
Bishop King, 
Henry Lodge, 
Nelson Lamb," 
Wm. H. Malin, 
Jos. R. Menough, 
John H. Menough, 
William Miles, Jr., 
William Niles, 
Curtis P. Pyle, 
Richard T. Plummer, 
EUwood Pyle, 
John S. Pyle, 
Humphrey Pyle, 
Friend W. Russell, 
Jos. W. Register, 



180 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



John D. Roi.ey, 
John W. Steele, 
Amos C. Sharpless, 
Jos M. Stackhouse, 
Robert Sill, 
Enos P. Sharpless, 



Smith Sharpless, 
Thomas J. Sharpless, 
Edward 13. Stanley, 
John B. Taylor, 
Albiu Yarnall, 
Walker Yarnall, 



Meredith Stackhouse, John P. Varnall. 

Conipauy II, i6th Jicgi/iirnf I'd. Militia. 

THK DARBY RANGERS. 

Charles A. Litzenburg, Captain. 
J. Charles Andrews, z.si Lieut. 
George S. Patchell, 2^/ /-zVwi. 



George Ash, Jr., 
Jas D. Byerly, 
George Bonsall, 
Henry Bonsall, 
William C. Bonsall, 
Wm. H. Bunting, 
Jacob S. Bunting, 
Henry Burgoine, 
John Bunting, 
Jos. M. Bunting, Jr., 
Hamilton A. Burk, 
B. Warner Bonsall, 
Reece Bonsall, 
Moses Bonsall, 
Joseph C. Bonsall, 
Andrew Colday, 
G. Swayne Collier, 
James Carr, 
Horatio P. Connell, 
James Colflcsh, 
D. Colflesh, 
George Davis, 
William Doles, 
John Davis, 
Samuel Edner, 
Edward Earle, 
William H. Ferris, 
John Gorton, 
R. Graham, 
James Hughes, 
N. Hatch, 
John J. Hoopes, 
Isaac H. Hibbert, 
Henry Hoppin, 



MUSTER ROL 



yivates. 

John S. Hansen, 
J. Robert Howell, 
George Hebon, 
John A. Hall, 
Alonzo A. Heap, 
Walker Y. Hoopes, 
Edward Kaine, 
Hugh Lloyd, 
Jos. L. Lewis, 
Abel Lodge, Jr., 
Isaac R. Lincoln, 
T. M. McLaughlin, 
Wm. H. Norris, 
John P. Ottey, 
George Plumley, 
Thomas Palmer, 
Josiah Preston, 
Henry Palmer, 
Henry H. Ru.ssell, 
Jacob S. Serrill, 
Joseph L. Sager, 
James P. Serrill, 
George Serrill, 
James S. Swayne, 
Samuel W. Shaw, 
J. R. Suplee, 
William H. Sheller, 
Valerius Sheller, 
Mordecai JSL Shaw, 
Richard Thatcher, 
Edward Thatcher, 
Albert G. Thatcher, 
John Verlenden, 
Charles Willis. 

THE UPLAND VOLUNTEERS. 



George K. Crozek, Captain. 
John Graff, \st Lieut. 
Thomas Stewart, id Lieut. 



S. Bentley, 
R. Vanzant, 



Sergeants. 



3. John Geltson, 

4. W. McNamee, 



Andrew I.ampert. 
Privates. 



W. Anderson, 
James Allen, 
Mark Allen, 
Jas. Brackenridge, Jr 
James Buckley, 
Ratcliffc Bridge, 
Matson Baile, 



George Bleakley, 
W. Birley, 
John Ronnor, 
Edwin Blakely, 
W. Chalfant, 
Tho. dough, 
Ayur Castle, 



Robert Cardwell, 
James Cauliff, 
John Cardwell, 
Richard Crowther, 
Robert Cornog, 
John Conovan, 
W. Chadwick, 
James Daniels, 
W. Dalton, 
Ezra Dransfield, 
Isaac Dalton, 
Wm. Dean, 
Wm. Dawson, 
Robert Elliott, 
George Elliott, 
William Finley, 
Henry Foster, 
Charles Firth, 
Andrew Finton, 
Allen Garside, 
Robert Garside, 
Luke Hepworth, 
Richard Hepworth, 
Ale.\. Hopkins, 
Wm. Henderson, 
Edward Howarth, 



Thomas Kay, 
John Lavery, 
George Loveland, 
David Minster, 
Arthur Martin, 
John McGovern, 
W. McClelland, 
James Mills, 
Joseph McBride, 
George Mousley, 
Charles McBride, 
Samuel Montgomery, 
Samuel Pretty, 
David Pretty, 

Alex. Struthers, 
Samuel Saxon, 
W. Struthers, 
Joseph Scott, 
James Smith, 
Edward Taylor, 
John Thompson, 
Robert West, 
Joseph Wyatt, 
W. Ward, 
John Wyatt. 



The Republican, from which I have 
copied most of the lists, making some 
corrections, says in reference to the 
last named. 

" We have not been able to procure 
all the names of the Company, which 
numbers ninety men. They are en- 
camped, for the present, on the Wis- 
sahickon. The people of Upland de- 
serve all praise for raising this fine 
Company. We understand the Messrs. 
Crozers have set apart a sum of money 
for the families of volunteers." 

The Slifer Phalanx^so named 
in honor of Hon. Eli Slifer, then Sec- 
retary of the Commonwealth under 
Governor Curtin — was recruited in 
Chester, and was, for a time, quar- 
tered in City Hall, during the month 
of May, 1861. The following is the 
roll of the company, which was mus- 
tered into service as Company C, ist 
Pennsylvania Reserves, or 30th of the 
line. 

Samuel A. Dyer, Ca/>tain. 
Joseph R. T. Coates, ist Lieut. 
John H. Taylok, Jr., 2ii Lieut. 
Sergeants. 

1. Jacob Keen Vaughan, Jr., 3. Wm. Olden Ridgway, 

2. Edward Larkin, 4. John M. Thompson. 



HISTOKY OF CHESTER. 



381 



Corporals. 

1. John McDonald, 3. Edwin E. Flavill, 

2. Edward R. Ross, 4. John H. Williams. 

Privates. 

Samuel Ardes, Edward McCabe, 

Oliver C. Armstrong, Henry McCloskey, 

James S. Ashbridge, William McCay, 

Edward Butler, Thomas McGarvey, 

John Brophy, James Pollock, 

William Bradford, John Porter, 

William Cunliff, William C. Paist, 

William W. Button, Henry Rocth, 

John Devlin, WilHam Rider, 

Charles Dougherty, Thomas Rice, 

James Dougherty, James Riley, 

David Donaldson, John Roebuck, 

Thomas S. Everhart, Matthew Roach, 

Edward Elliott, James-Stewart, 

George Fildes, William Smith, 

Edward Farren, Lane Schofield, 

Michael Grady, Jesse Supplee, 

Harry Hobaugh, Andrew Shaw, 

John Huff, John E. Smith, 

Edward Hickman, James Sanders, 

Isaac Helms, William StiUwell, 

Samuel Hinds, John T. Schofield, 

Horace Hill, James Stevenson, 

Archy Hamilton, Joseph Turner, 

Robert Henderson, Thomas Vanzant, 

John Johnson, Abram R. Vanzant, 

William Lamey, Alfred G. Webb, 

Samuel Lord, George Warsley, 

James Lusby, Thomas Wilkinson, 

Peter Miller, Samuel Williams, 

Robert Mills, R. H. Welsh, 

Thomas Mills, Collins D. Walker, 
William Wood. 

In the early part of July, 1861, Cap- 
tain Wm. L. Laws recruited a cavalry 
company in Chester. Afterwards the 
Company was removed to Philadelphia, 
and Captain William K. Grant was 
substituted in place of Laws. The 
Company was mustered into service as 
Co. I, 60th Regiment, 3d Pennsyl- 
vania Cavalry. The following per- 
sons were from Chester and its vicinity : 
Matthias Cooper, William Hadfield, 
George Phillips and Edward Crowther, 
Sefgca?ifs. John Oaks, Saddler. 

Privates — James Ardis, William 
Brown, John Byram, James W. Car- 
roll, William Campbell, Michael Cur- 
ran, Joseph Cook, Joseph Dalton, 
Henry C. Fuller, Eli Hamilton, Wil- 
liam H. Martin, William Moore, 
James McGahey, William McGinness, 



William Quinn, John Ramsay, Thos. 
Schofield, Isaac West, William T. 
W>st. 

Other officers and men who had 
been recruited at Chester were dis- 
tributed through the different com- 
panies of the 60th Regiment, thus : 
In Co. K, there were privates, John 
A. Devers, Patrick Ford, John Arm- 
strong, Thomas Dyson ; Co. C, there 
was Thomas Riley ; in Co. E, George 
W. Rocas; in Co. F, there were Alex- 
ander King, Oram Gregg, James A. 
Parcels, James Rusk, George Birth, 
David A. Brown, Charles Dewight, 
William Mason, John O'Brien, John 
Phillips, Joseph L. Pedrick, William 
Ramsey, Samuel Shepherd, George 
Weigand. 

Co. M, Abel Wright, \st Lieut.; 
John W. Ford, 2d Lieut. ; Albert 
Bradbury, Sergeant; Benjamin Mc- 
Donald, Joseph A. Ford, Abel Ford, 
Corporals; Robert Coppock, Farrier. 
Thomas Broomall, William Crozer, 
Nehemiah Ford, Samuel Grey, James 
McFaddon, William McDonald, Jas. 
Willis, Privates. 

Co. A, y]th Regt. Pa. Militia ; musiered in 
July 1-15, 1863; discharged Aug. 'i,2„it, 1863. 

William Frick, Captain. 
Edward M. Lyons, ist Lieut. 
William G. Price, ■zd Lietit. 

Sergeants. 

1. John Eyre Shaw, Esq., 3. Chas. D. Pennell, 

2. Thos. Donechy, 4. Wm. C. Dubree, 

5. George Baker. 
Corporals. 

1. Chas. A. Story, 5. Henry Hinkson, 

2. John McFall, 6. Robt. M. Green, 

3. John Atkinson, 7. Charles Hinkson, 

4. David M. Johnson, 8. Frederick Engle. 

Musicians. 
Hamilton Sample, James Rawncliffe. 

Privates. 

Aaron Allen, John Birtwell, 

David Appeleliy, Chris. Blakeley, 

James R. Abernethy, Joseph Blakeley, 

Thomas Berry, William Blakeley, 

Abram Blakeley, Thomas W. Boker, 

Abram Birtwell, Jacob Boon, 



882 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



John Jiouii, 
Peter Hoon, 
Henry Bradley, 
Geo. F. Brinton, 
Thomas Chambers, 
James Cochran, 
Geo. P. Dale, 
Wm. P. Derr, 
Alfred O. Deshong, 
James Dunkcrley, 
Julius A. Dutton, 
Joseph Eckersley, 
Peter H. Engle, 
Samuel Etchclls, 
William Ewing, 
Edwin E. Flavin, 
J. Marshall Garrett, 
James Gartside, 
John Gart-'side, 
Wm. H. Geary, 
Thomas Gibbs, 
Peter Goff, 
George Gorby, 
Robert C. Gorby, 
Jonathan Grant, 
Charles L. Grubb, 
James Haiise, 
William Harrison, 
Joshua Hibbard, 
Jesse Hicken, 
Henry M. Hinkson, 
John Holt, 
Alfred HooflT, 
J. Wash. Irving, 
John P. Jones, 
Company A, \C)']th Pa 



Jacob B. Kitts, 
Joseph Ladomus, 
Henry Larkin, 
Thomas Lee, 
Benjamin Mason, 
Joseph Miller, 
William Mills, 
Robert Mirt, 
William Moore, 
James Morgan, 
David W. Morrison, 
Wm. P. Morrison, 
James Montgomery, 
Daniel ^rcKinney, 
Wm. J. Ogleby, 
Wm. Patterson, 
Andrew Phillips, 
Wm. R. Rice, 
Geo. H. Ridgeway, 
Wm. Schoficid, 
Arnold Shaw, 
John Slawter, 
Robert Smith, Jr., 
Thos. O. Stephenson, 
Jacob B. Stewart, 
Henry SutliflF, 
Charles Sweeney, 
Wm. H. H. Taylor, 
George Turner, 
Richard E. Turner, 
Rich'd T. Turner, 
Joseph Weaver, 
Thomas Wilkinson, 
Thomas Wood, 
Jacob B. Yates. 
Vols., July 16, 1864. 



CAPT. 15ARTON S CO., lOO DAY.S MEN. 

James Barton, Jr., Captain. 

James C. Hinkson, ist Lieut. 

Thomas H. Berry, ■zd Lieut. 

Sergeants. 

1. John M. Clayton, 3. Jesse D. Minshall, 

2. Ambrose McDade, 4. Wm. F. Shoemaker, 

5. William Trainer. 
Corporals. 

1. Cheyney H. Smith, 5. Preston E. Wilson, 

2. Robert J. Eagleson, 6. Henry C. Hinkson, 

3. Joseph L. Armcnt, 7. Benjamin Crowther, 

4. Henry Larkin, 8. George S. Dutton. 

Musician — George W. Schofield. 
■ Privates. 



John 15. Allen, 
Theodore J. Bell, 
Samuel A. Benson, 
Abram W. Birlwell, 
Frank Blagg, 
Hamilton Burk, 
Milton Bowers, 
James Braceland, 
Peter Boon, 
John Birtwell, 
Mark Brewster, 
Samuel Burk, 
James B. Berry, 
Edward W. Casey, 
John Cannavan, 



Samuel W. Chadwick, 
Samuel R. Chambers, 
Albert Dutton, 
George H. Derrick, 
James Dougherty, 
Alfred B. Kntriken, 
David Foster, 
Theodore J. Gleason, 
Nelson C. Green, 
John M. Hinkson, 
Clayton P. Hannaway, 
Thomas Hance, 
Charles J. Hewes, 
George Horning, 
Jo.scph P. Hindsley. 



Harrison Hoffman, 
William Hill, 
William Hepworth, 
Spencer Howard, 
Lewis P. Hendrickson, 
Isaac Jones, 
Martin Kelly, 
John H. Kerlin, 
James D. Knight, 
Samuel W. Loveland, 
Benjamin H. Mason, 
John S. McDade, 
William McDonald, 
Henry D. McNeild, 
Flemming Maloney, 
Daniel McKinney, 
Vincent Nichols, 
Samuel Nuttall, 



Joseph Osborne, 
Gibbons L. Pharoah, 
Emmor W. Porter, 
Edwin L. Powell, 
John H. Pretty, 
Samuel C. Price, 
Silas L. Sample, 
Joseph B. Sample, 
Lewis J. Smith, 
Nelson S. Talley, 
William E. Trainer, 
George W. Turner, 
J. Terrill Ulrich, 
Theodore A. Vansant, 
John W. Warren, 
William H. Williams, 
William H. Weir, 
William W. Young. 



Of course it must be understood that 
the muster rolls of volunteer compa- 
nies, herein given, contain only the 
names of the members of the com- 
panies when they were first organized. 
Those who desire further information 
as to those who joined the companies 
afterwards, are referred to Bates' His- 
tory of the Fe?insylvama Volunteers, 
and the report of the Adjutant General 
of Pennsylvania for 1866, in which full 
histories of the services of each regi- 
ment, names of ofiicers, privates, and 
recruits from time to time and the pro- 
motions made during the war, are given 
in full. 

Of the officers in the regular service 
during the rebellion, the old town of 
Chester has no need to feel ashamed ; 
in fact, I believe her people are just a 
little proud of them. Their names 
will justify all their fellow-townsmen 
can .say in their favor. The list is as 
follows : 

David D. Porter, Admiral, U. S. 
Navy ; Frederick Engle, Rear Ad- 
miral, U. S. Navy ; William D. Por- 
ter, Commander, U. S. Navy ; Pierce 
Crosby, Commodore, U. S. Navy ; Ma- 
jor David Porter Heap, Paymaster, 
U. S. Army; May Humphreys Stacey, 
Captain and Brev. Lieut. Col., U. S. 
Army; Henry Ogden Porter, Lieut., 
U. S. Revenue Marine, acting Lieut. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



383 



of the U. S. Navy ; David Porter Heap, 
(the younger,) Captain, U. S. Engin- 
eers ; Henry DeHaven Manley, Lieut. 
Commander, U. S. Navy ; Henry Clay 
Cochrane, ist Lieut.- U. S. Marine 
Corps. 

Chester has also the right to claim 
as an adopted son another hero, who 
should rank next at least, to the elder 
Porter, — I mean David Glasgow Farra- 
gut, the brave old Admiral, who was 
born July 5, 1801, at Campbell Station, 
East Tennessee. At the early age of 
nine years he was appointed a Mid- 
shipman in the U. S. Navy, and served 
under David Porter in the Essex. 
In the engagement with the Phcebe 
and Cherub, hereinbefore fully de- 
scribed ; the young middy was knocked 
down a hatchway by a falling man, 
and severely bruised, but was able to 
do duty at his gun till the Essex was 
surrendered. This was the only occa- 
sion in which Farragut ever received 
a hurt while in the service. He was 
then 12 years old. On his return to 
the United States, after peace was de- 
clared, Farragut went to school at 
Chester, to an old French officer who 
had served under the great Napoleon, 
with whom he studied military and 
naval science for two years, and at the 
expiration of that time returned to duty 
as a midshipman. He was not com- 
missioned as a Lieutenant until 1825. 
Commodore Porter made special and 
honorable mention of Farragut's gal- 
lantry in the fight at Valparaiso, but 
said with appropriate regret that "the 
boy was too young for promotion." 
My recollection is, that the late Cap- 
tain Henry Ogden, also of Chester, 
was on board the Essex, in the same 
engagement, being at that time about 
the same age as Farragut, and that 
Porter in his report regretted that 



' ' the boys were both too young for 
promotion." My late old school- 
mate at Chester, Henry Ogden Porter, 
was so named after Captain Ogden, 
who was a distinguished officer in the 
navy. Li '' The Delaware County 
Paper a7id Mail,'' of Jan. 2, 1877, 
will be found the following: 

" Some of our older readers will recall the 
time when Commodore David Porter resided 
at the Greenbank Mansion, in this city, and 
distinctly remember David G. Farragut, a mid- 
shipman, who was then a member of the Com- 
modore's family, and quite a beau among the 
ladies of Chester of that day. The future 
Admiral they recall as an agreeable fellow, 
short in stature and far from comely in fea- 
tures. Commodore David Porter, it will be 
remembered, to make the following extract 
intelligible to our readers, was the son of 
David, who was a Captain in the Continental 
Navy. The Springfield Republican of a re- 
cent date, tells us 'that David Porter, Sr., 
(the Revolutionary officer,) was once fishing 
on Lake Pontchartrain, when he was pros- 
trated by a sunstroke. A man named Farra- 
gut kindly cared for him, and the son of Por- 
ter, subsequently known as Commodore David 
Porter, finding that Farragut was in moderate 
circumstances, with several children to sup- 
port, adopted David when he was but seven 
years old, obtained him an appointment as 
midshipman, and kept him with him until 
after the capture of the Essex.' 

This historical scrap will be new to many 
of the old people of the vicinity, who knew 
the old Commodore and his protege, but never 
heard before' that Farragut was the adopted 
son of the former. In 1863, when we were 
in New Orleans, and Farragut in the Hart- 
ford, lay opposite Jackson Square, we were 
told by a lady of that city, a confirmed rebel, 
that the Admiral's mother was then living in 
that city, and that she had refused to receive 
him when he called upon her in his uniform. 
The old lady was in destitute circumstances, 
by reason of the war ; her son furnished her 
every thing she desired, and yet she refused 
to recognize him unless he was in citizens' 
dress. We do not know whether this state- 
ment is correct; it was told us just before 
Farragut ascended the river to make his daring 



384 



ISTORY OF CHESTER. 



run l)y tlie liattcries i)f Port Hudson, on the 
14th of March, nearly 14 years ago." 

General Robert Patterson lias been 
so long engaged in manufacturing 
business in Delaware County, and is 
so well known there, he is for that and 
other reasons deemed one of its peo- 
ple. His father, Francis Patterson, 
was a Presbyterian, and a respectable 
farmer in County Tyrone, Ireland, 
who after the rebellion of 1798, in 
which he took part with his native 
countrymen, emigrated to this coun- 
try, and settled in Delaware County, 
Pa. Robert was then a boy of six 
years of age. As soon as he was old 
enough he entered the counting house 
of Ed. Thompson, a prominent Phila- 
delphia merchant. Fond of military 
affairs, he entered the U. S. service 
during the War of 181 2, as a Lieut, of 
Infantry, at the age of 19 years. He 
rose to the rank of Captain, in 1815 
resigned and returned to mercantile 
life ; but became an active participant 
in Militia affairs at Philadelphia, and 
finally Major General of Division in 
1824. In 1838, he and his Division 
were on duty at Harrisburg; again in 
1844, aided in suppressing the riots in 
Philadelphia. In 1846, during the 
Mexican War, Mr. Patterson entered 
active service again as Major General 
of Volunteers in the U. S. Army, and 
served through the entire campaign. 
In 1 861, he ag^in entered the service 
with his old rank and took active part in 
defence of the Government during the 
civil war. With the Penna. Reserves 
and other troops, including the famous 
" First City Troop," of Philadelphia, 
he occupied Harpers Ferry, Va., and 
was censured for not marching on 
Winchester, and thus holding in check 
the Rebel forces which advanced 
against the Union Army, and aided 



in its defeat at the battle of Bull Run. 
Lossing, in his Civil War, gives a full 
narrative of this campaign ; and the 
General issued his vindication in 1865, 
entitled "A Narrative of the Cam- 
paign in the Valley of the Shenandoah, 
in 1 86 1," a copy of which he sent me, 
as an acquaintance of his son, the late 
Major General Francis Patterson, U. S. 
Volunteers. The Comte de Paris, in 
a letter dated Oct. 8, 1876, to a gen- 
tleman of Philadelphia, exonerates the 
General from all blame, and says, if 
his work on the war reaches another 
edition, the errors in the first edition 
in reference to this affair, shall be cor- 
rected. "Frank Patterson," as he 
was called by his Army friends, had, 
previous to the breaking out of the 
Rebellion of 1861, been a Captain of 
the Regular Army. He died shortly 
after the battle of Malvern Hill. His 
brother, Robert Emmett Patterson, 
was Colonel of the Regiment formed 
by the old company of Hibernia 
Greens, of Philadelphia, and in ser- 
vice during the War of 1 861-5. 

Gen. Patterson says: "I remember 
the Hill family well, the old gentlemen 
and the old lady, and all the sons and 
daughters. I went to school with the 
Juniors. William was the eldest, mar- 
ried and farming, when Peter and 
George W. were at school ; John F. 
was the second, Peter, the third, and 
George, the youngest. I knew Judge 
Crosby well, he was a warm friend of 
my father's — Pierce, Robert and John 
Crosby also. Judge Crosby was one 
of the best and most respected men 
of Delaware County. The school we 
went to was not near ridley Park, it 
was on a small piece of land in the 
road leading from Gibbon's tavern to 
the Ferry on Darby Creek, hading to 
the Lazaretto, where the Townsliipsof 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



385 



Ridley and Springfield met. It was 
given by William Pennock for school 
purposes. Mr. Pennock was then in 
the Legislature. The house is there 
yet, I go every summer to see it. My 
father's farm, and where he lived when I 
was a boy, was in Ridley, lining Pen- 
nock's farm from the school house re- 
ferred to, back to the road leading from 
Gibbon's tavern to the Leiper road, 
the largest farm there. House and barn 
are still there, occupied by a very 
nice family named Worrell. My fa- 
ther's farm, has, I think, been di- 
vided up into 3 or 4 farms. Delaware 
sent Isaac D. Barnard and myself to 
the Army in the War of 1812. A 
better soldier than Barnard was not in 
the Army. I knew the Crosby's, Mor- 
ton's and Mcllvain's well, none more 
reputable." 

The General ends his note by writ- 
ing : "I am going this afternoon, 
(April 22, 1876,) to pay my respects 
to an old school-mate, and I believe 
the only one alive. She was Miss 
Mary Gardner, daughter of Captain 
Edward Gardner, now Mrs. Mary 
Crowell, mother of the Rev. Mr. 
Crowell, a respected Presbyterian min- 
ister, and in her eighty-fourth year. 
I am in my eighty-fifth." 

Thomas Home lived on William 
Pennock' s place when I went to the 
old school mentioned, about 1832, 
then kept by Edward Thomas ; and 
Abraham Worrell lived on the old 
Patterson farm. Captain Edw. Gard- 
ner lived somewhere near the White 
Horse Tavern. 

The General will never see the old 
school house again ; it has been torn 
down to make ■ room for a dwelling, 
now building on its site, by William 
Home, a son of George, and a grand- 
son of Thomas. The school house not 



having been used for many years for the 
purposes for which it was donated, re- 
verted to the assigns of Mr. Pennock. 
Davis Shillingford now resides in 
the old red brick Pennock Mansion, 
and occupies a part of their original 
estate. 

XLI. 

An obituary on the death of Harry, 
or " Budd" Porter, as he was called 
at school, in the Chester Republican, 
of May 31, 1872, says : 

" His life was an eventful one. Fond of 
adventure, he joined Walker in his expedi- 
tion to Central America, and while on that 
expedition was cut up with bullet wounds, 
which much impaired his activity for the re- 
mainder of his life. When the war of the 
Rebellion broke out, Lieut. Porter was in 
South Carolina on board a Revenue Cutter 
that was seized by the rebels. He managed 
to escape, came north, volunteered for the 
navy, in which he served during the whole 
war, returning to the Revenue Marine at its 
close. He was First Lieutenant of the U. S. 
steamer Hatteras, when that vessel was sunk 
by the Alabama, commanded by Captain 
Semmes, and stood at his guns until the ship 
went down. (His Captain refusing to sur- 
render, fought his vessel until she sunk be- 
neath his feet in the waters of the Gulf of 
Mexico.) As soon as he regained his liberty 
he returned to active duty in the navy, and 
served on board the Susquehatuia, com- 
manded by Gordon, in the two battles at Fort 
Fisher, where he displayed his usual bravery." 

I knew Theodoric, Hamilton, and 
Harry quite well. Harry and m3'self 
were schoolmates. As a boy, he was 
full of fun and mischief, as were also 
his elder brothers. I remember quite 
distinctly, that during the winter 1833- 
34, when the Delaware River had been 
frozen up for some time from Chester 
to Philadelphia, Theodoric and Hamil- 
ton started to drive two horses, har- 
nessed to a sleigh, to the city, not- 



:;80 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



withstaiuling the fact that the weather 
was moderating, a heavy fog prevail- 
ing, and the ice melting in the stream 
and showing signs of breaking up. The 
persuasions of their friends to try and 
induce them to abandon their mad 
project was in vain, as they usually 
were on such occasions, and they 
started off and made the trip in safe- 
ty, reaching Pine street wharf just as 
the ice in the river began to move, 
and the horses were with difficulty 
saved from being drowned. They con- 
sidered this adventure excellent fun. 
Since writing the above, the incident 
has become the subject of a news- 
paper article, in which David is sub- 
stituted for Hamilton, which I think is 
a mistake. Still I was very young, and 
although the story differs from my boy- 
ish recollections, it may be correct for 
all that. It is thus related by the 
Delaware County Republican : 

" The thrilling account of ' A Winter's 
Night on Lake Winnebago,' printed in the 
last number of this paper, recalls to mind a 
feat performed nearly forty years ago, by David 
D. (now Admiral) Porter, and his brother 
Theodoric, then residents of this place. The 
love of adventure, added to the cool and de- 
termined bravery which the sons of Commo- 
dore Porter were always known to possess, 
and which never forsook them in any emer- 
gency, prompted them to determine to reach 
Philadelphia, by way of the Delaware, in a 
sleigh. The winter was unusually severe, and 
the river had been filled, for several weeks, 
with large masses of floating ice. The night 
previous to their adventure was intensely cold, 
and on the following morning the ice had 
ceased to run — the river was frozen over from 
Pennsylvania to New Jersey, and a light snow 
covered the ground. The proposition to visit 
J'hiladelphia leaked out, and shortly there- 
after many of the older people of the town 
visited ' Greenbank'— then the residence of 
the parents of the young men — to endeavor to 
dissuade them from so perilous an under- 
taking. The various obstacles that would 
present themselves during the passage; the 



almost certainty that the horse and sleigh 
would get into an air-hole, and that the youths 
would be beyond help and get lost, were re- 
presented to them by matter-of-fact men, who 
knew the river, and the numerous dangers to be 
surmounted before the city could be reached, 
if, indeed, the feat could be accomplished at 
all. All this was heard by the young men, 
but not heeded, and at nine o'clock in the 
morning the horse and sleigh was brought 
to the foot of W^elsh street, and the Porter 
boys entered the sledge. The ' ribbons' were 
entrusted to David, the elder, and the two set 
out on their trip. The mouths of the different 
streams that enter into the Delaware — Ridley, 
Crum, and Darby Creeks — were closed with 
ice piled several feet high, and a detour, far 
into the river, had to be made to avoid these 
obstructions, \\hich neither man nor beast 
could overcome. The inside channel, known 
as the ' Lazaretto Channel,' was taken, and 
the sleigh and its occupants passed Martin's 
Bar, the mouth of the Schuylkill and the 
Horse Shoe, without accident of any kind. 
On approaching the city, they found that the 
ice was detached from the shore for some dis- 
tance, and it became necessary for safety to 
keep well off the land. At noon they arrived 
at their destination, and tied their horse 
alongside the' old Sea Gtill, then a receiving 
ship, anchored off the Navy Yard. The navy 
officers, friends and shipmates of the old Com- 
modore, their father, received the young men 
with open arms, congratulated them on the 
performance of their dangerous feat, and en- 
tertained them handsomely. At three o'clock 
they returned to the sleigh, and made prepara- 
tions to leave for home by the same route they 
had reached the city. The cold had by this 
lime become more intense, and friends advised 
them to abandon their purpose. On they 
went, however, and after an hour's ride they 
became benumbed, and, halting their vehicle, 
they built a fire upon the ice to warm them- 
selves. Li the course of half an hour the 
journey was resumed, and Chester was reached 
without mishap, at nine o'clock at night, the 
whole distance, thirty-two miles, having been 
performed over the frozen surface of a river 
in many places thirty feet deep. No one has 
tried the experiment since, nor is it in the re- 
collection of any of our oldest citizens that it 
was e\er previously performed. We have not 
attempted to relate the incidents of this perilous 



IIISTOUY UF CHESTER. 



887 



ride, all of which were at one lime familiar to 
the residents of this to\\n, many of whom 
have passed away — not, however, without re- 
counting to their descendants the trip of David 
D. Porter and his brother Theodoric, over the 
ice, from Chester to Philadelphia, in a sleigh." 

Just above where the tracks of the 
P. W. & B. Railroad cross Chester 
Creek, there are two large flat rocks, 
resting on a much larger one, which 
projects into the stream somewhat. In 
old times "The Rocks" were quite 
out of town, and there was nothing 
near them but an enclosed field for 
sheep and cattle, called "The Sheep 
Pen. ' ' The rocks were then a famous 
swimming place, to which all the Ches- 
ter boys resorted, after school was out, 
to bathe. Most of the .school boys of 
my time could swim like ducks, even 
the very small ones, who were taught 
by the larger boys throwing them in 
the creek from these rocks. I remem- 
ber throwing James, or May Stacey in ; 
I forget which one it was. He was 
about nine years old, but he swam ; 
and I nearly drowned David Quinn, 
by pushing him off the rocks, thinking 
he could swim. About 1834 or '35, 
Theodoric Porter swam from Green- 
wich Point to Chester, about 15 miles. 
In emulation of this feat, all the Ches- 
ter boys undertook to swim from the 
rocks to Ship Creek woods, over half 
a mile, and back again. Some got to 
the woods, but none got back without 
touching with the foot, for a kind of 
a rest. 

A brief sketch of the life and ser- 
vices of Frederick Engle, will be found 
in an obituary, which I copy from 
7he RepubUca7i of Feb. 21st, 1868: 

" Frederick Engle, Rear Admiral on 
the retired list of the United States 
Navy, died at his residence in Phila- 
delphia, on Wednesday of last week, 



of disease of the heart, aged sixty-nine 
years. He was born in Chester, and 
entered the navy in 1814, when he was 
but fifteen years of age. The ocean, 
at that time, swarmed with pirates, and 
Commodore Porter was sent in search of 
them . Young Engle accompanied him 
in his various cruises, performing his 
duty faithfully, and receiving the com- 
mendations of his superior officer. He 
commanded the steamship Princeton 
during the Mexican war, and in the 
attack upon Vera Cruz, a shot from 
his vessel made the first breach in its 
walls. He was afterwards sent to the 
Mediterranean and Black Seas, and 
visited the Crimea. When the rebel- 
lion broke out, he was sent to relieve 
Commodore Stribling, then in com- 
mand of the flagship Hartford, and 
brought that vessel home. He also 
commanded the frigate Wabash. Sub- 
sequently he was stationed at the Phila- 
delphia Navy Yard, after which he was 
appointed Governor of the Naval Asy- 
lum. He was President of one or 
more Boards of Inquiry and Exami- 
nation, a position for which he was 
admirably fitted. For the last two 
or three years he suffered from an ap- 
parent dropsical affection. He was 
made Commodore on the retired list, 
July 10, 1862, having been retired as 
Captain, Dec. 11, 1871. His last 
grade was given him in 1867. He 
had seen twenty-five years of sea ser- 
vice and eight years of shore duty, in 
fifty-three years' connection with the 
navy. Admiral Engle's kindness was 
proverbial. He always evinced a warm 
attachment for the place of his birth, 
and no one from that place, who was 
worthy, ever applied to him without 
receiving assistance. His remains were 
interred at Burlington, New Jersey." 
Delaware County claims also some 



:J88 



HISTORY OF CHESTEH. 



interest in another distinguished officer, 
viz. : Gen. Andrew A. Hunijjhreys, 
Chief of the Engineer Cori)s, and 
Brigadier-General of the United States 
Army, and Major-General of Volun- 
teers, who graduated at the U. S. Mil- 
itar\- Academy, June 30, 1S31, num- 
ber 13 in his class, and entered the 
service as Bvt. 2d I>ieut. of the 2d 
Artillery, Jul\- i, 1831. He was a 
classmate of Lt. Col. Henry Clay, Jr., 
who graduated second, and was mor- 
tally wounded at the battle of Buena 
Vista, Feb. 23, 1847. Gen. Hum- 
phreys is also a graduate of the Mora- 
vian Seminary for boys, at Nazareth. 
Pa., called "Nazareth Hall," and that 
venerable institution is very proud of 
her .son. Many gallant boys graduated 
at the same school, and a handsome 
monument has been erected on the 
green in front of the hall, to perpetu- 
ate the memory of those who fell in 
battle or died in the service of their 
country. The General is a grand-son 
of Joshua Humphreys, the first naval 
constructor under General Washing- 
ton. His ancestors settled in Dela- 
ware County, where some of his des- 
cendants still reside on a portion of 
the patrimonial estate. The father of 
the General was Samuel Humphreys, 
who inherited his father's i)eculiar 
talent, and was appointed Chief Naval 
Constructor during the administration 
of Mr. Monroe, and was distinguished 
alike for his talents and gentlemanly 
deportment. General Humphreys was 
Chief of Staff under General Meade, 
Commander of the Army of the Poto- 
mac. A war correspondent of the 
New York Tribune thus describes him : 
"A small, middle aged man, close 
shaved, excejit a short trimmed mos- 
tache, which is slightly grizzled, as is 
also his hair; with a large nose, bridg- 



ed with spectacles, good complexion, 
quiet, unassuming demeanor, smile 
sweet as a woman's, and a voice im- 
pressively low. This man, who gives 
you the idea of tremendous power in 
reserve, is General Humphreys, made 
Major General for distinguished ser- 
vices at Gettysburg." 

I cannot drop this portion of my 
history without recording my tribute 
of respect for an old Chester school- 
mate, now dead ; and I cannot do it 
better, than by inserting here, a truth- 
ful obituary notice of him, copied from 
The Rep ltd lie an of March 27, 1861, as 
follows : 

'' Died at Erie, Pa., on Saturday last, 
the 22nd inst., Lieut. Samuel Edwards, 
of the U. S. Navy, aged 39 years. It 
is with deep regret that we announce 
the death of Lieut. EdAvards. We have 
known him long, intimately, and al- 
ways favorably. He was born in this 
county, and on the death of his parents 
came to reside with his uncle, the late 
Samuel Edwards, Esq., when but a few 
years old,, under whose care and pro- 
tection he remained till 1838, when a 
warrant was obtained for him as a mid- 
shipman in the navy, and he entered 
the service of his country at an early 
age. He passed a most creditable ex- 
amination, and obtained the rank of 
Passed-midshipman, and in his turn 
was promoted to a Lieutenancy. He 
spent most of his time in active duty, 
and during the Mexican war, was at 
the bombardment of Vera Cruz, and 
was attached to the battery which first 
made a breach in its walls. He was 
skilled in his profession, and was most 
gallant and brave in the performance 
of all his duties. He removed to Erie 
a few years ago, where he married an 
estimable lady with whom he lived 
most happily till his death. His friends 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



389 



and acquaintances here, will learn with 
sorrow his early departure from the 
scenes of his usefulness." 

Since the close of the Rebellion, 
the officers and soldiers of the U. S. 
Army and Volunteers ha\e formed 
themselves into Societies, to perpetu- 
ate the remembrance of their former 
military organizations and service, and 
to protect and care for their sick and 
disabled comrades and their families; 
and are fulfilling their self-imposed du- 
ties in the most honorable and praise- 
worthy manner. The honorably dis- 
charged Volunteers have instituted a 
military order, extending throughout 
the United States, and denominated 
"The Grand Army of the Republic." 
Each separate locality or division, has 
its subordinate organization, which is 
called a "Post," and is named in 
honor of some deceased comrade, who 
once resided in the vicinity or depart- 
ment of the Post. 

Post Wilde, No. 25, G. A. R., is 
located at Chester, and was organized 
July 27, 1867. The Post was so nam- 
ed, in honor of the memory of Isaac 
Edward Wilde, son of John and Helen, 
born May 30, 1842, at Knowlton, Del- 
aware County, Pa. At the age of 1 7 
years he enlisted as a private in Com- 
pany B, 20th Regt. Pa. Vols. (Scott 
Legion), was mustered out with his 
company, and immediately re-enlisted 
in the 3d Penna. Cavalry, in which he 
served until just before the battle of 
Fredericksburg, Va., when he "was dis- 
charged for promotion," and returned 
home, but becoming impatient he re- 
enlisted in the 3d Regt. of Heavy Ar- 
tillery, and was stationed at Fortress 
Monroe until March, 1864, when he 
was mustered into the i88th Penna. 
Volunteers, formed from the extra men 
of the 3d Heavy iVrtillery, and was 



made 2d Lieutenant of one of the com- 
panies, and served with his new regi- 
ment under Gen. Butler. At the bat- 
tle of " Chapin's Farm," his regiment 
was nearly cut to pieces, and he was 
placed in command of two companies, 
being the only officer left. Soon after 
his health gave way, and he was placed 
in the army hospital near City Point, 
Va., where he died, July 26, 1864, of 
chronic diarrhoea. 

The Post is in a flourishing condi- 
tion, has a large membership, and a 
pleasant meeting-room, with a small 
library of 300 volumes. The organi- 
zation is beneficial, paying $4 a week 
sick benefits, $50 upon the death of a 
comrade, and $30 upon the death of 
a comrade's wife. It is the only soci- 
ety representing the veteran soldiers 
of Delaware County. 



PAST COMMANDKRi 

William H. Martin, 
James McDade, 
William C. Paist, 
Thomas Lees, 



OK THE POST. 

Joseph F. Brewster, 
George S. Buck, 
Edward Blains, 
Joseph P. Chadwick. 



Marshall Miller. 



List of, 
Henry Abljott, 
Humphrey Y. Arnold, 
William Armstrong, 
William Band, 
Levis Booth, 
Thomas Blythe, 
John Barrowclough, 
Tho. Bruner, 
Jacob C. Berstler, 
Theodore J. Bell, 
Thomas Blizard, 
Joseph F. Bell, 
William Blakfley, 
Ebenezer Birtwell, 
William B. Broomall, 
Joseph P. Chadwick, 
Edward Crowther, 
Theodore S. Christ, 
Robert Chadwick, 
William H. Cowden, 
Joseph R. T. Coates, 
Daniel Crowther, 
Fred. R. Cutler, 
Joseph C. Carter, 
Isaac L. Craft, 
James Christie, 
Theodore Dransfield, 



Mevil'crs. 

Charles Dickerson, 
John F. Danaker, 
John Diress, 
Patrick Doyle, 
Elias Eves, 
William Eves, 
Able Ford, 
Jacob Freshley, 
Albin P. Gettey, 
William C. Gray, 
William Gray, 
Jesse Griswold, 
Joel Hollingsworth, 
Moses Hewitt, 
G. C. Healy, 
William G. Howarth, 
Thomas G. Hutchinson, 
Isaac Helraes, 
William J. Harvey, 
Lewis Holden, 
Joseph N. James, 
Isaac Johnson, 
David M. Johnson, 
Joseph Kestner, 
Alc.x.inder King, 
Samuel Kay, 
Jonathan Kershaw, 



;'J0 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



Edward Lillcy, 
Richard Leggett, 
Thomas Lccs, 
John Lilley, Jr., 
Thomas I. Leiper, 
Arthur Martin, 
William H. Martin, 
Edward T. Mason, 
James McDade, 
Thomas H. Mirkil, 
Samuel Montgomery, 
James Morris, 
G. Mills, 

William P. Morrison, 
Charles McBridc, 
Marshall Miller, 
William Miller, 
James H. McKinley, 
John McDaniels, 
John McFeeters, 
Lacy H. Nicholson, 
William C. Paist, 
Jesse W. Paist, 
Caleb N, Pierce, 
Geo. A. Pearce, 
William W. Pearce, 
Gasow: 



William D. Piatt, 
George M. Pardoe, 
William G. Price, 
Horatio N. Piatt, 
William Pilger, 
William Rambo, 
Lewis J. Smith, 
Alexander Stokes, 
Edward C. Smith, 
J. M. Stocver, 
William Stanton, 
Fred. P. Taylor, 
Domingo C. Thomson, 
William L. Tomlinson, 
William A. 'J-odd, 
Edward Townsend, 
Chas. Thompson, 
William Cooper Talley, 
Theo. H. Vansant, 
Joshua M. Wilson, 
George W. Wilson, 
John Wohnus, 
Hiram Williams, 
William Waite, 
Jonathan Wilson, 
Joseph O. Wilson, 
y O. Yarnall. 



It is the custom of the G. A. R., to 
decorate annually, on the 30th of May, 
the graves of their decea.sed comrades, 
accompanied by a grand parade and 
an address suitable to so laudable an 
occasion. An account and programme 
of the proceedings of one such day, will 
be an example for all. From the J^e- 
publican of Chester, May 27, 1870, I 
copy a notice of 

" Decoration D.\y. — The iiieinl)crs of Post 
Wilde, G. A. R., have made extensive prepa- 
rations for the observance of Memorial Day, 
which occurs on Monday next. Many of the 
civic associations have signified their willing- 
ness to be present, and the different fire com- 
panies of our city will make a display. Alto- 
gether the occasion promises to be one of a 
highly interesting character, and is hopeil will 
be paiticipated in by a large majority of our 
citizens. The procession will be under the 
direction of Dr. Theo. S. Christ, Chief Mar- 
shal, and the address will be delivered by Capt. 
James Barton, Jr. The ladies who wish to 
prepare wreaths and bouquets for the ceremony, 
can leave them at the various places desig- 
nated in this paper. The programme will give 
all the particulars of the order of proceeding, 
and is as follows : 



"ORDI'-.R Ui- CKRI-.MONIKS I'OR Dkcok.vt- 

iNc THE Graves of the Soldiers, on Mon- 
day, the 30th inst. 

The line will form at 1.45 i'. m., o\\ Market 
Street, right resting on Market Stiuare. 

The procession will be formed in the follow- 
ing order : 

Chief Marshal and Aids. 
Band. 

FIRST DIVISION. 

Post Wilde, No. 25, G. A. R., followed l)y 
liearses bearing flowers. 

SECOND DIVISION. 

Chester and Upland Lodges of I. O. of ( ). F. 
and Independent Order of Red Men. 

THIRD DIVISION. 

Larkin and Chester Lodges, K. of Pylhias. 

FOURTH DIVISION. 

Senior and Junior Councils of American Me- 
chanics, Protestant Association and 
Good Fellows. 

FIFTH DIVISION. 

Fire Department — Franklin Engine Company, 

Moyamensing Hook and Ladder Co., 

and Hanley Hose. 

SIXTH DIVISION. 

Carriages containing Mayor, City Councils, 
Clergymen and Citizens. 

Associations will take post as follows : 

Chester and Upland Lodges I. O. of (). F., 
on east Fourth .Street, right resting on Market 
Street. 

Independent Order of Red Men, on West 
Fourth .Street, right resting on Market Street. 

Larkin and Chester Lodges, Knights of Py- 
thias, on K. Fifth St., right resting on Market. 

.Senior and Junior Councils United .\niori- 
can Mechanics, Protestant Association and 
Order of Good Fellows, on West Fifth Street, 
right resting on Market. 

Fire Department — Franklin Engine Com- 
l^any, Moyamensing Hook and Ladder Com- 
pany and Hanley Hose Company, on Edgmcmt 
Street, right resting on railroad. 

The line will move promptly at 2 o'clock. 

Associations are earnestly requested to be 
prompt in taking position, that no delay may 
])e caused. 

Details will Ijc made from the Post to de- 
corate the graves of the soldiers in the Episco- 
pal and Union graveyards before 2 o'clock. 
Details will also be made in the forenoon of 
Monday, and iirocecd to the Friends', Catho- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



391 



lie and Powell's graveyards in the city of 
Chester, and Friends' gi'aveyard at Shoemaker- 
ville, and decorate the graves therein, and re- 
turn in time to take part in the procession. 

The line will countermarch at Second and 
Market Streets^ and proceed to the cemetery 
at Upland, decorate the graves therein, rest 
half an hour, will then return to Chester Rural 
Cemetery, form in front of the stand, remain 
until after the address, which will be delivered 
by comrade Captain Jas. Barton, Jr., after 
which the members of the Post will decorate 
llie graves of the soldiers in the cemeteiy. 
The line will then re-form, march to Market 
Square, and there dismiss. 

Theodore S. Christ, Chief Marshal." 

Since the termination of the Rebel- 
lion and the emancipation of the slaves 
of the Southern States, Chester has be- 
come the residence of a very large 
number of the colored race. On the 
ist of July, 1870, a number of the co- 
lored citizens held a meeting and effect- 
ed a military organization, to which 
they gave the name of " Chester City 
Safeguards. ' ' The following have been 
the Commissioned officers of the com- 
pany since its formation, viz. : 

Captains. 
Andrew Johnson, July 22, 1870. 

Isaac B. Colwell, July 11, 1871. 

Isaac Emory, May 15, 1872. 

First Lieutenants. 
Isaac B. Colwell, July 22, 1870. 

David Hull, Mar. 16, 187 1. 

Sec( )NU Lieutenants. 
David Hull, July 22, 1870. 

Benjamin Reed, Mar. 16, 1871. 

The company consists of 84 non- 
commissioned officers and privates. 

There are also two other military 
organizations composed of white male 
citizens of Chester, viz. : Company A, 
formed Sept. 12, 1872, and Company 
B, of the Gartside Rifle Battalion. 
Company A, is commanded by Capt. 
George F. Springer; ist Lieut. Charles 
A. Story, promoted from 2d vice John 



H. Kerlin, who resigned in Sept., 1872 ; 
2d Lieut. James Fryer ; together with 
5 sergeants, 8 corporals and 48 pri- 
vates. Company B, was organized 
March 12, 1873, with David S. Gwynne 
as Captain, (resigned March 26, 1873.) 
John J. Morgan, ist Lieut, (resigned 
March 19, 1873.) Simon Lazar, 2d 
Lieut. William A. Todd, was elected 
Captain, April 16, 1872, at which date 
the command consisted of 5 sergeants, 
8 corporals and 53 privates. William 
McClelland, was commissioned 2nd 
Lieut., vice Morgan resigned. The 
battalion is commanded by Maj. Dan- 
iel Brown, formerly Captain of the first 
company. 

In July, 1875, ^ military company, 
named "The Morton Rifles," was 
formed by Charles A. Story, Jr., and 
so called in honor of John Morton, 
the signer of the Declaration. The 
company was organized by the election 
of James Barton, Jr., as Captain; Chas. 
A. Story, ist Lieut., and John M. 
Householder, as 2d Lieut., and mus- 
tered into the nth Regt. of National 
Guards of Pa., in Aug., 1875. Sub- 
sequently Capt. Barton was promoted 
Aid to Gen. Dobson, and on Sept. 
3d, 1876, Story was elected Captain; 
Householder, ist Lt. ; John P. Gregg, 
2d Lt. ; and John McFeeters, ist ; Wm. 
Williams, 2d; John Thompson, 3d, 
and Robert McGinty, 4th Sergeants. 
The Coinpany number 50 uniformed 
members : and on account of their 
efficient drill, were armed by the State 
with the Remington breech-loading 
rifles ; only one other company in the 
regiment being thus armed, namely, 
"The Oxford Guards." 

' ' The Hartranft Rifles, ' ' were or- 
ganized in Jan., 1876, by Capt. Perry 
M. Washabaugh, and on Apl. 20, 1876, 
were mustered into service as Co. B. 



892 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



iith Regt., loth Division of the Na- 
tional Guards of Penna. ; and was so 
named in honor of the present Gov- 
ernor of the State, under whom many 
of the Company served during the late 
war. It has 90 members on the muster 
roll. At the first meeting, the officers 
elected were, Perry M. Washabaugh, 
Captain; Robert H. Wood, \st Lieut. ; 
Joseph T. Wilde, 2d Lieut. Their 
armory is on Market Square, being 
in the building lately occupied by the 
' ' Delaware County Republican. ' ' The 
Company meet for drill every Thursday 
evening. 

On Sept. 17, 1873, the Soldiers' 
Monument, erected in Chester Rural 
Cemetery, was dedicated to the me- 
mory of the soldiers and sailors of 
Delaware County, who fell in the Great 
Rebellion, in the presence of a large 
concourse of citizens, numbering about 
8,000 persons, under the auspices of 
Post Wilde, No. 25, of the Grand Army 
of the Republic. The procession was 
composed of the members of Post Wilde^ 
of Posts No. 2 and No. 5, G. A. R., 
from Philadelphia, of Hyatt's corps of 
Cadets and Artillery, the Gartside Ri- 
fles, the 1 6th Regiment of National 
Guards, Montgomery Grays, St. Mi- 
chael's Beneficial Society, the Cadets 
of Temperance, Franklin Fire Com- 
pany, Hanley Hose Company, Moya- 
mensing Hook and Ladder Company, 
and the Chester City Cornet Band. 
Marshal — Gen. Charles L. Leiper. 
Aids — Humphrey Y. Arnold, Edward 
C. Smith, W. Irving Leiper, Col. Wm. 
Cooper Talley, Capt. James Barton, 
John C. Price, Humphrey Ash, Lieut. 
Commander Henry De Haven Manley, 
U. S. Navy, and Henry Clay Cochrane, 
ist Lieut. U. S. Marine Corps. At 4 
o'clock P. M., the i)arade reached the 
Cemetery. Y. S. Walter tailed the 



large assembly to order, and on mo- 
tion, George K. Crozer, of Upland, 
was unanimously chosen President of 
the day. The Rev. Dr. Pendleton, of 
the Baptist Chur«h, made .the dedica- 
tory prayer; and Col. William C. Gray, 
read the history of the monument, 
erected by the liberality of the citizens 
of the county. 

The movement for the erection of 
the Monument, was inaugurated by the 
members of Post Wilde who desirous 
of obtaining the aid of the citizens, 
called a meeting on June 9, 1868, at 
National Hall, Chester. The Mayor 
of the city, John Larkin, Jr., presided. 
An organization to carry out the pur- 
poses of the meeting was effected by 
the election of Col. Wm. C. Gray, as 
permanent President, and a Board of 
Managers, consisting of Dr. Theodore 
S. Christ, Samuel Eccles, Jr., James Ir- 
ving, Perciphor Baker, William H.Mar- 
tin, Col. Wm. Cooper Talley, William 
Ward, Esq., and Charles J. Andrews. 
The ladies also lent their aid under 
the leadership of Mrs. Mary B. Leiper, 
and the purpose progressing favorably, 
the lot offered by the managers of the 
Chester Rural Cemetery was accepted ; 
and at a meeting held Aug. 5, 1870, a 
new Board of Managers was elected, 
viz.: Dr. Theo. S. Christ, Adam C. 
Eckfeldt, William H. Martin, James 
Irving, William Ward, Esq., Hon. 
Sketchley Morton, Amos Gartside, 
Perciphor Baker and Y. S. Walter, 
who appointed a committee consisting 
of Messrs. Walter, Eckfeldt and Ir- 
ving, to select a design for the Monu- 
ment, and an artist. The committee 
selected as the artist Martin Millmore, 
of- Boston, and the result of his labors, 
as directed by the committee, was a 
handsome work of Aft — a private sol- 
dier standing at rest. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 






Col. John W. Forney, the author 
and editor, was the orator of the day 
on the occasion of the dedication, and 
at the conclusion of his address, the 
statue was unveiled* in the presence 
of the assembled multitude. Among 
those on the speakers' stand were Bvt. 
Major General Galusha Pennypacker, 
Colonel loth Regt. U. S. Infantry, Re- 
gulars, who rose from a private in the 
97th Penna. Vols. ; Col. Guss, his old 
commander, stood by his side ; also, 
Hon. Washington Townsend, M. C. ; 
Hon. Sketchley Morton ; J. L. For- 
wood, the Mayor of Chester ; Col. 
Thomas Irvine Leiper ; Lieut. Col. 
May Humphreys Stacey, U. S. Army ; 
Dr. R. Shelton Mackenzie ; the writer, 
and the members of the Board of Man- 
agers. And among the ladies were. 
Miss Mary E. Beale, Miss Annie Ba- 
ker, Miss Mary Gray, and last though 
not least, Mrs. Mary B. Leiper, who 
is so well known for her patriotism and 
kindness to the sick and wounded 
soldiers during the late rebellion of 
1861-65. Mrs. Leiper is the descen- 
dant of a line of soldiers, as will be 
seen in my sketch of the Leiper and 
Irvine families. Her brother Callen- 
der Irvine Lewis, was one of my boy- 
hood companions, with John C. Lei- 
per, Dr. George L. Taylor, Dr. Eli- 
sha K. Kane, and others around Lei- 
perville ; and his relative, Lieut. Col. 
Frank D. Callender, U. S. Army, was 
an ' ' old Cadet, ' ' when I was a ' ' Plebe' ' 
at West Point. 

XLII. 

In giving an account of the ' • Archy 
Dick Guards," William Cooper Tal- 
ley. Captain, I referred to the fact that 
the company was named after the late 
Archibald T. Dick, Esq., of Chester. 



Mr. Dick was the descendant of an old 
Delaware County family. His father 
was Thomas B. Dick, son of Archibald 
Dick and Mary his wife, (widow of 
John Hewes, and daughter of Thos. 
Barnard, of Aston, whose wife's name 
was Sarah Carter.) He was admit- 
ted to the Delaware County Bar, Feb. 
9, 1790. After his admission as an 
Attorney, he went to Easton, in this 
State, and practiced there for several 
years. I have been shown his docket, 
kept in his own handwriting, as is 
customary with the legal profession, 
and am surprised at the large practice 
he obtained. He seemed to have had 
about seventy cases a term, a heavy 
business for that day. In fact it would 
be in this. As the cases are entered 
in detail, there is no mistaking that 
they were matters of importance. He 
is said, by some who remember him, 
to have been an elotjuent pleader, and 
giving high promise of a life of useful- 
ness ; but he was drowned in the Del- 
aware, while out gunning or fishing in 
a row-boat, on April 21, 181 1, in a 
snow-storm, but how the event occurr- 
ed, nobody knows, as he was alone. His 
body was not recovered until the 29th 
of the month. Mr. Ziba Darlington, 
of West Chester, says he remembers 
well the excitement in regard to his 
death. Mr. Dick was born March 12, 
1766, so he was only just past his 45 th 
year at the date of his untimely death. 
He was admitted to the Bar under the 
name of Thomas Dick. In his docket 
he enters his name in that manner until 
1793, after which he writes his name 
Thomas B. Dick. The introduction 
of a middle name or letter, made by 
persons to distinguish them from peo-- 
pie of the same name, is quite common 
in this country. Mr. Dick used the B, 
Barnard being his mother's name, and 



894 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



liis grandfather being Thomas Barnard 
of Aston ; its introduction was therefore 
very appropriate. He married Phoebe 
Hart, a widow. Her maiden name was 
Brinton, of Chester County, Pa. ; she 
survived him many years, and died 
Dec. 30, 1840, aged 77 years, and was 
buried in Friends' burying grounds, 
Chester. Her age as given in records 
of Chester Monthly Meeting, 74 yrs., 
is said to be an error.* They had 
four children, Archibald, Brinton, 
Mary and Phoebe Dick. 

In the beginning of Thomas B. 
Dick's docket, is the following entry 
in his own hand: "On the 17th of 
April, 1788, commenced the study of 
the law, with Thomas Ross, Esq. ; on 
the 9th of Feb. 1790, was admitted 
at Chester, in Delaware County, having 
been previously examined by Jacob 
Bankson, William Bradford and Ed- 
ward Tilghman, Esqrs." He was ad- 
mitted to the Bar at New Castle, on 
Feb. 18,1790, on motion of Mr. Tilgh- 
man, on Feb. 23, 1790, at West Ches- 
ter, on motion of Mr. Rcss, his pre- 
ceptor, and at Philadelphia, Oct. 25, 
1 790. His docket entries begin with 
Nov. Term, 1789, with one case; at 
Feb. Term, 1790, he had two cases; 
in May Term, eight ; at Aug. Term, 
1790, eleven cases, «S:c. 'I'his docket 
runs up to Oct. Term, 1794, and is 
the record of his cases in Delaware 
County. It then begins in North- 
ampton County, Nov. Term, 1794. 
Here Mr. Dick appears to have en- 
tered, at once, into a very large prac- 
tice, as he had fifty cases on his docket 
for 1795, and his business went on in- 
creasing rapidly. In Aug. Term, 1 796, 
he had seventy-six cases. He appears 

* In records of Kennet Monthly Meetins^ 
it is stated tiiat Phebe, dau. of James and 
Mary Krinton, was born in 1766, which Mould 
make her 74 in 1840. 



to have continued at Easlon till Nov. 
Term, 1 798, when he returned to Dela- 
ware Comity to reside, where his 
docket recommences. He had as his 
law-partner at one time, his cousin, 
Isaac D. Barnard, Ksq. 

His son, Archibald T. Dick, was 
born Dec. 21, 1794. He married, 
Sept. 3, 1816, Hannah, daughter of 
William and Mary Rogers, of Ches- 
ter County, born Dec. 2, 1796 ; died 
Dec. 31, 1856. He was admitted to 
the Delaware County Bar, June 16, 
1816; and lived at Chester until his 
death, Aug. 13, 1837. He had a large 
practice, and was an estimable and 
popular citizen. His residence at 
Chester, which he erected, was lately 
owned and occupied by William and 
Joshua P. Eyre, deceased, on Edg- 
mont Avenue, facing the west end of 
Fifth street. At his death he left his 
widow, and the following children sur- 
viving him, viz. : Marv £., who mar- 
ried the late Peter Hill Engle, Esq. 
He died 2 mo. 17, 1844. Some years 
after his death, she married Lewis 
Lewis, of Philadelphia. They are both 
now dead. Phxbe Ann Dick, mar- 
ried Janies H. Castle, Esq., of the 
Philadelphia Bar. Their son, Dr. 
Franklin D. Castle, is a )oung prac- 
ticing physician in his native cit\-. and 
another son, Horace, is a member of 
the Philadelphia Bar. Emma L. Dick 
married Professor E. Otis Kendall, of 
Philadelphia. Mr. A. T. Dick's only 
son, Franklin A. Dick, Esq. , is a mem- 
ber of the St. Louis Bar, but now a resi- 
dent of Philadelphia. 

Archibald Dick, of Chichester, was 
the great-grandfather of the present 
generation. He was, I find from the 
records at West Chester, the purchaser 
of the estate upon which he resided, 
near Marcus Hook, of Marv Norris of 



HlSTOllY OF CllESTEK. 



895 



the city uf Philadelphia, by deed 
dated, Aug. 3, 1771, for ^£45^ '> ^"^i 
from a letter in the Penna. Packet, of 
July I, 1779, it appears that he was an 
Assistant Deputy Quartermaster Gene- 
ral in the army of the Revolution. 
He dates his letter, June 28, 1779, 
from " Liberty Hall," Chester. And 
in 1 2th Colonial Records, p. 306, I 
find it noted, that Perciphor Frazier, 
Esq., (afterwards a Brigadier General;, 
is spoken of as the Commissioner of 
Purchases for the army, (April 5 , 1 780), 
and Reading Howell and Archibald 
Dick, Esqs. , as Assistants. On April 5 , 
1780, he was appointed Assistant For- 
age Master for Chester County, 3 Pa. 
Archives, 701, 2d Series. His Will is 
on record at West Chester, dated Feb. 
9, 1782, and proven, April 23, 1782. 
. The following interesting and ap- 
propriate letter is copied from the 
original, in the autograph collection 
of Ferdinand J. Dreer, of Philadel- 
phia : "Chester, 19th June, 1779. 
Sir: By Lieut. McMickell, I send 
fifty-one prisoners, which are said to 
have been taken in the vessels lately 
captured by Captains Tucker and 
Harding. They came to this place 
last evening under a militia guard, 
from Wilmington, and were delivered 
to Captain Vaughan, sub-Sherifi', by 
the otificer, who immediately went off 
without leaving any account of them, 
more than a list of names which you 
have inclosed. You will please pay 
to expense, or refer it, if in the regu- 
lar line, to sir, your most obedient and 
humble servant, A. Dick, A. D., Q. 
M. G." Addressed, "On Publick 
Service, to Col. Bradford, Esq., Phila- 
delphia, and Pr. Lieut. McMickell." 
The letter is signed and addressed by 
Archibald Dick, the rest evidently 
written by his clerk. 



At the southwest corner of Marc us 
Hook Cross Roads, there stands a large, 
quaint-looking old frame house, no 
doubt, once considered quite a grand 
mansion. Here, if my recollection 
serves me right, my father told me 
Archibald T. Dick's grandfather once 
lived. Archibald Dick lived in muck 
of the style that was common in Ches- 
ter County in those days. He drove, 
when visiting Philadelphia, in a ba- 
rouche with four splendid horses, with 
his negro driver and servants, ^^■e 
speak of the luxury in which our peo- 
ple of wealtli live at this day, but 
there was something grand in the 
generous hospitality and the unaffected 
style and dignity with which they did 
everything in the days of our grand- 
fathers and great-grandfathers. 

The Dutton record, MS., has among 
the deaths, Archibald Dick, 3, 9, 1 782. 
Meaning, of course, that he died Mar. 
9, 1782. He appears to have had but 
the two children mentioned in his 
will. Dr. Elishaand Thomas (B.) Dick. 

Dr. Elisha Dick, who resided at 
Alexandria, Virginia, where he prac- 
ticed medicine, is mentioned in all of 
our histories as one of the physicians 
who attended General Washington in 
his last illness. He was a physician 
of skill and high standing, and a per- 
sonal friend of President Monroe. An 
excellent portrait of Dr. Dick, in pro- 
file, engraved by St. Memin, has been 
preserved, and a copy can be seen in 
the American Historical Record, \o\. 
2, p. 507, and it will be found there 
stated, what is not generally known, 
that Washington died of membranous 
croup, and not oi quinsy. I afterwards 
corrected the statement made in the 
same article, that Dr. Dick was a na- 
tive of Scotland, 3 lb. 130. His only 
child, Julia, married James A. Pearce, 



;;i)(i 



HISTOUV OF CHKSTEK. 



who was United States Senator from 
Maryland from 1843 ^^ '62, and who 
lived at Chestertown, in that State, 
where his descendants now reside. 

Archibald Dick divided his estate 
about equally between his two sons. 
Dr. Dick sold his one undivided half 
.of the Marcus Hook ])roperty. April 
29, 1783. to Isaa( Dulton, for ^^985, 
in gold and silver. i'liomas ( B. ) 
Dick made i)artition with Dutton, 
March 23, 1787. and sold out in par^ 
eels, and about 1789 he removed to 
West Chester, near which town his 
grand-son, rny friend and old school- 
fellow at Chester, has now his country 
summer residence. Archibald Dick, 
in hLswill, emancipated his slaves and 
gave each one a legacy in money. 
One, who seems to have been a fa- 
vorite and was called "Cuff," was 
made a charge upon his estate, and 
lived to see at an extreme old age the 
g. grand-children of his "Old Massa!" 
the children of the late Archibald T. 
Dick, of Chester. 

The family tradition that Archibald 
Dick was the owner of fine stock, I 
find to be well sustained by the notices 
in the newspapers of his day. In the 
Pennsylvania Gazetteer, of Oct. 5, 
1769, it is stated that " Mr. Di( k en- 
tered his Grey Horse for a race at 
Centre Course;" in the J\-nnsylvania 
Packet, May 4, 1772, he advertises 
that he has purchased the " noted 
horse, Dove, imported from England 
by Dr. Hamilton," and on May 17, 
1773, a similar notice sets forth that 
he has at " Marcus Hook, the horse 
Pennsylvania Farmer, without excep- 
tion the greatest beauty in America, 
under the care of David Miller." 

Dr. Smith, in his history of the 
County, Appendix L, p. 556, gives 
the following interesting sketch of a 



case tried at Chester, March 2, 1764, 
before John Hannum and John Mor- 
ton, two of his Majesty's Justices of 
the Peace, iS:c., (A '^ The King\%. Negro 
Phche, the slave of Joseph Richard- 
son," under an "Act for the tryal 
of Negroes," with the assistance of 
Jonas Preston, Elisha Price, David 
Cowjjland, John Salkeld, Geo. Grant- 
ham and William Swaffer, six of the 
most substantial freeholders of the 
neighborhood. Witnesses, Thomas 
Barnard, Christopher Dingee, Joseph 
Dutton and Archibald Dick. On an 
information exhibited by Benjamin 
Chew, Attorney General for our Lord 
the King, for Feloniously and Bur- 
glariously breaking and entering the 
mansion house of Thomas Barnard 
and stealing therefrom divers goods 
and chattels, and after hearing, the 
Court adjudged the negro Phebe, 
guilty, and further, that the said 
"Negro Phebe l)e led to prison irom 
whence she came, and from thence to 
the place of execution, and there be 
hanged by the neck till she be dead." 

Among the names of the contribu- 
tors to the Pennsylvania Hospital, in 
1770, will l)e found that of Archibald 
Dick ; and in " Tlie Republican Court,''' 
( Grisu'old, N. Y., 1855,) p. 13, there 
is a copy of the original subscription 
list to the first city Dancing Assembly 
held in Philadelphia, in the year 1748, 
in which is the name of " Miss Molly 
Dick," perhapsa relative of Archibald. 

The late Archibald T. Dick, of 
Chester, was a prominent lawyer, but 
like his father, died in middle age, on 
Aug. 13, 1837, not having reached 
his 43d year. During the war of 
1 81 2, he was a private in the 2d Com- 
pany of the Washington Guards, of 
which the late venerable Ex-Mayor, 
lohn Swift, of Philadelphia, was Ca])- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



397 



tain. The Company was attached to 
the ist Regiment of Pennsylvania 
Volunteer Infantry, commanded by 
Col. Clement C. Biddle, 4th Com- 
pany. The Regiment arrived at Camp 
Du Pont, Sept. 17, 1814. On Nov. 
30, the entire force broke cam]) and 
marched into Wilmington, Delaware, 
and thence via Chester to Philadel- 
phia, entering that city on Dec. 2. 
" Such a sight as the march of a body 
of three thousand well-disciplined and 
uniformed soldiers, with all their bag- 
gage and munitions of war, had not 
been witnessed since the period of the 
Revolution, and it may be safely said, 
a more proud and joyous day was never 
before experienced by the inhabitants 
of Philadelphia. " See ^ Brief Sketch 
of the Military Operations on the Dela- 
ware, printed in 1820. 

In 1834, Archibald T. Dick was the 
candidate of the Democratic Anti- 
Bank Party for Congress, but was de- 
feated. Immediately above the ticket, 
as printed in the Upland Union, of 
Oct. I, 1834, is this notice: 

" The Anti-Masons are particularly so- 
licited not to vote for Masons. They should 
be cautious, therefore, how they swallow the 
Bank ticket, as it is said to contain a number 
of the adhering brethren." 

This caution is particularly amusing, 
when it is known that Mr. Dick joined 
the Chester Lodge in 1820, and in 
1825 was its Worshipful Master. 

Mr. A. T. Dick, was a fine looking, 
light haired man, with blue eyes and 
rosy cheeks, about six feet in height, 
and in person looked very much like 
my father. They were about the same 
age, and great friends, as are their 
sons. Among my first recollections 
there, is a visit to see Frank Dick, and 
playing in their barn at Chester, and 
at a later period trotting a race with 



him, and Nat. Crosby, my cousin. 
The following is an instance of Mr. 
Archibald T. Dick's courage and pres- 
ence of mind, as I have heard it re- 
lated in Chester. A child having 
fallen into the river Delaware from one 
of the Government piers that projec' 
into the stream, he sprang into the wa- 
ter, with all his clothing on, caught the 
child, and brought it safely to the shore. 
A friend of mine once said : " It is 
only by knowing what a man does, 
and has done, that you can form a 
correct idea of him. ' ' I will give him 
the full benefit of his remark, because 
it introduces an unwritten page in our 
history. Franklin A. Dick, son of 
the late Archibald T. Dick, Esq., of 
Chester, was born there in the year 
1823. He graduated at the University 
of Pennsylvania in 1842, studied law, 
and commenced practice in St. Louis, 
Mo., in 1844, and continued in prac- 
tice there until 1861, when the active 
part he took on the side of the Union 
in the Rebellion, for a time interrupted 
his civil ]nirsuits. His practice was 
large, and he was very successful. 
When the Rebellion was lirewnng he 
exercised his pen in opposition to it, 
and for a time, actively assisted in 
editing the Missouri Democrat, a St. 
Louis paper, which was near being de- 
stroyed by the pro-slavery mob on ac- 
count of its extreme denunciation of 
the active Secession i.sts of the South. 
During the winter of 1860-61, after the 
election, and before the inauguration 
of Mr. Lincoln as President, there 
was great activity throughout the slave- 
holding States in making preparation 
to commence the war for the dissolu- 
tion of the Union. Claiborne F. Jack- 
son, a violent rebel, was Governor of 
Missouri, and the South expected of 
him that he wuukl get jjossession of 



398 



ISTORY OF CHESTER. 



the St. Louis Arsenal, in which was i 
storeci about 50,000 stand of arms, 
and an immense supply of ammuni- | 
tion, also many batteries of Artillery, ' 
and a full suj)i)ly of ordnance equip- | 
ments. This would have enabled i 
Jackson to arm all his disloyal ad- | 
herents, and given him the control of 
the wealthy city of St. Louis, whose 
wharves were thronged with Missis- 
sippi river steamers, and whose ware- 
houses were stocked with every kind 
of wares and merchandize. During 
that winter, St. Louis was like a rebel 
camp. The nucleus of two Confederate 
regiments were being formed, and they 
were furnished with arms supplied by 
the State, and openly drilled and 
paraded in the streets of the city with 
drums beating and followed by crowds 
shouting for Southern rights and down 
with the Union. Mr. Buchanan sat 
cowering in Washington, and while 
Southern leaders proclaimed the com- 
ing dissolution of the Union on the 4th 
of March ensuing, he declared that the 
Federal Government had no power to 
save itself. As a consequence of this 
condition of things, and under a strong 
l)elief that the Union was gone and 
the Federal Government in effect de- 
stroyed, a large portion of the men of 
business and of means in St. I-ouis, 
gave in advance their adhesion to the 
Southern cause. There was, however, 
a small number of active, unflinching 
Union men, whose hearts and minds 
remained steady and unshaken in those 
days of trial, and who set to work to 
gather together and unite the sup- 
porters of the Union. It was neces- 
sary for these men to work secretly, 
for so bold and extreme were the Se- 
cessionists that they denounced all 
(ombinations to support the Union as 
unlawful and revolutionary, bet ause in 



opposition to the sacredness of State 
rights. During that winter the loyal 
men were formed into companies of 
Home Guards, and money was raised 
and arms secretly procured for them, 
and when the spring came a formida- 
ble body of men were combined to- 
gether to resist the approaching rebel- 
lion for the overthrow of Government. 
It was found that most of the officers 
of the Regular Army who were sta- 
tioned at the Arsenal in St. Louis 
were disloyal, and in answer to appeals 
from Union men. Gen. Scott, then 
commander of the military forces, or- 
dered Nathaniel Lyon, a Captain in 
the 2d Infantry of U. S. Regulars, to 
take command at the Arsenal. Lyon 
at once became acquainted with the 
prominent Union men of the city, and 
amongst others with Mr. Dick, and 
learned from them the civil and mili- 
tary condition of affairs, and became 
satisfied that it was necessary to take 
into the service of the Government the 
loyal men of the city, in order to pro- 
tect the Arsenal. Gov. Jackson had 
appointed for St. Louis disloyal Police 
Commissioners, one of whom was Basil 
Duke, who afterwards distinguished 
himself in the great raids made by John 
Morgan's mounted men during the war. 
These Commissioners appointed a body 
of disloyal policemen for the city, and 
used them in their efforts to secure the 
Arsenal. Jackson also, in April, 1861, 
assembled in camps at leading places 
in the State, the Militia ; and at St. 
Louis he established Camp Jackson, 
for the purpose of seizing the Arsenal. 
The active part taken by Mr. Dick 
amongst those who were standing up 
for the Union, may be seen from the 
following letters, selected from a num- 
ber of others written him. and now 
first made piiblii . 



HISTOllY OF CHESTER. 



899 



"■St. Louis Arsenal, April 13M, 1861. 
F. A. Dick, Esq., Dear Sir: I ascertained 
last night that policemen have been stationed 
for the night at the gates of this Post, and 
seem to be watching eagerly the movements 
inside. This I regard as having reference to 
the arms which have been placed subject to 
my orders, with a view to see that they are not 
distributed at night, and doubtless, with a de- 
termination to resist their distribution at any 
time. I write to you in order that some de- 
termination should be come to on the subject. 
What should be done, I hardly know. If the 
arms are kept in store till an attack is made 
upon the Arsenal, it will ]>e the policy of the 
attacking party to keep out a supporting party 
to us. The distribution before an attack, with 
a view to have our friends in readiness to 
assist us, can hardly be made secretly, and 
if made openly, it is likely, I think, to be op- 
posed by the traitors, and it would be neces- 
sary to meet the issue. I am disposed to 
think this is the better course. If the sugges- 
tion of Mr. Farrar, that our friends should be 
brought inside, quartered, supplied and pro- 
perly organized here, could be carried out, it 
might work well — perhaps Gen. Harney would 
sanction this course ; but he should lie cau- 
tiously approached on this subject. I should 
like to see the General on this subject, and 
will try to do so this morning. Yours truly, 
N. Lyon." 

Mr. Farrar here spoken of, was Ben- 
jamin G. Farrar, then U. S. Assistant 
Treasurer of St. Louis, under Mr. Lin- 
coln. By the following note written 
three days later, it will be seen that the 
rebels Avere intent on securing their 
grand prize. Lieut. Saxton there men- 
tioned, was Rufus Saxton of the Regu- 
lar Army, who served during the war 
on the Union side. General Frost 
was a graduate of West Point, who had 
formerly served in the U. S. Army, 
and had resigned years before, and 
who on the approach of the Rebellion 
became an active rebel, and on ac- 
count of his military education, was 
placed by Gov. Jackson in that im- 
])ortant conmiand. He afterwards 



figured largely on the rebel side. 
Frost, Saxton and Lyon, were com- 
rades of the writer at West Point. 
The note is as follows : 

''St. Louis Arsenal, April i6t/i, 1861. 
F. A. Dick, Esq., Dear Sir: Gen. Frost 
stated to Lieut. Saxton that he expected orders 
from Gov. Jackson, to plant batteries on the 
hills around us, and that under such orders 
he would do it. No addition to troops here. 
Yours, &c., N. Lyox." 

At this time General William S. 
Harney, of the U. S. Army, was in 
command of the Department embrac- 
ing St. Louis. Although he was loyal 
to the Government, he was in part 
blinded and embarrassed by the State- 
rights principles which had prevailed 
at Washington, and his incompetency 
to understand and meet the revolu- 
tionary schemes of the rebels, reduced 
him to such a state of inaction, that 
practically he was of as much service 
to the rebels as though he had been in 
sympathy with them. Naturally he 
fell under suspicion, and it was ne- 
cessary that he should be removed 
from command ; so he was ordered to 
Washington, and during his absence 
Lyon, being next in command, was 
free to prepare for the defence of the 
Arsenal. Mr. Dick had written to the 
Attorney General, Edward Bates, with 
whom for years he had been practic- 
ing at the St. Louis Bar, explaining 
the necessity there was for a change in 
the command of the Department, and 
in reply received the following letter, 
which by its date will be seen to have 
been written immediately after the 
first attack on the Union troops in 
Baltimore, and when Washington was 
actually cut off from the North. 

Confidential, Washington, April 20, 1861. 

F. ;\. Dick, St. Louis, Dear Sir : Vouvs of 
tlic i6tli at liand, I have acted iiroin].lly uj-on 



400 



HISTOKV OF CHESTER. 



it. Gen. 11. will be relieved by order, per- 
haps already gone. Major Hagner will be 
cared for. Keep up the Union spirit to the 
highest point; tell the true men they shall 
have arms. Make sure of St. Louis for a little 
while, and we will make sure of Cairo, as soon 
as we gather a little more strength. Those 
two points safe we can command the valley. 
The mob in Baltimore has done some mis- 
chief, made a terrible noise, but we will soon 
be able to manage them ; and not only so, 
but taking care of Fort Monroe to command 
the Chesapeake. The enemy beat us terribly 
in lying. They make facts at pleasure, and 
magnify and distort the true facts; to this 
time that has been their main strength. I 
am tired and sick of being always on the de- 
fensive, and always backing down. If I am 
not greatly mistaken, you will see a new phase 
of things very soon. I am pressed for time 
to the uttermost. \'ours truly, 

Ed. Batks." 

Major Hagner here spoken of, was 
an ordnance officer, who while he 
clamed to be loyal, yet did all he 
could to oppose Lyon's preparations 
for defence. Hagner was soon or- 
dered away, and Major Frank D. Cal- 
lender, (a cousin of Mrs. Mary B. 
Trainer, late Leiper,) one of the most 
loyal and efficient officers in the Ord- 
nance Department of the Amy, succeed- 
ed him, and continued in command of 
that important post throughout the 
war, to his great honor and the public 
benefit. Lyon now pushed forward 
his preparations. After much entreaty 
the Union men of St. Louis had ob- 
tained from Mr. Lincoln an order to 
admit loyal men into the Arsenal,. and 
lo arrn them in its defence. Lieut. 
j. M. Schofield, of the U. S. Army, 
who at the outl)reak of the war was on 
leave, acting as Assistant Professor 
in the Washington University at St. 
Louis, was detailed to deliver arms 
from the supply at the Arsenal to these 
men, and enroll them in the service of 
the United States ; for no steps had 



been taken to enlist these men in the 
three months' service, under the call 
of the President for 75,000 three 
months' men. These new irregular 
volunteers made a brigade of four regi- 
ments, and elected Captain Lyon their 
Brigadier General ; all this was merely 
for the purpose of remaining within 
the Arsenal and defending ^t. Lyon 
and his St. Louis supporters soon came 
to the belief that if they remained in- 
active, Gen. Frost would move upon 
the Arsenal from his camp on the 
western edge of the city, where he 
had two regiments and two batteries 
of artillery, all State militia, besides a 
considerable irregular force of disloyal 
citizens, which gave it the violent and 
dangerous element of a mob, as an at- 
tachment to the armed militia. On 
the night of the loth of May, 1861, 
Gen. Lyon called into conference with 
him. Gen. Frank P. Blair, command- 
ing the I St Regiment, Missouri Union 
Volunteers, Mr. Oliver D. Filley, who 
had been lately the Mayor of St. 
Louis, and Mr. Franklin A. Dick, 
who was acting as volunteer assistant 
Adjutant General to Lyon, that they 
should decide whether or not to take 
the aggressive, and make an attack 
upon Gen. Frost and his camp. They 
at once decided that the attack should 
be made, and that night orders were 
secretly issued to the commanders of 
the various regiments to be ready to 
move early ne.xt morning, and on the 
nth of May, 1861, Lyon, with his four 
regiments, two of which were com- 
manded by Col. F. P. Blair and Col. 
Franz Sigel, both of whom afterwards 
became distinguished as Major Gene- 
rals in the war, and with four com- 
panies of Regulars, commanded by 
Rufus Saxton, Totton, Sweeny, and 
another officer, marched from the Ar- 



HISTuliY OF CHESTER. 



401 



seiial, on the south edge of the city, 
to Camp Jackson, just west of the 
city. Lyon's staff consisted of F. A. 
Dick, A. A. G. ; Samuel Simmons, 
A. C. S. ; Bernard G. Farrar, A. D. 
C., and Gary Gratz, A. Q. M., who 
was killed at the battle of Wilson's 
Creek. He was a brother of the pres- 
ent wife of Commodore Pierce Crosby, 
of the United States Navy. 

Before the attack was resolved upon, 
Lyon received the following note : 

" Headquarters, Missouri Militia, 
Camp Jackson, May lo, 1861. 
Capt. N. Lyon, commanding U. S. Troops, 
in and about St. Louis Arsenal, Sir : I am 
constantly in receipt of information that you 
contemplate an attack upon my camp. Whilst 
I understand you are impressed with the idea 
that an attack upon the Arsenal and United 
.States troops, is intended on the part of the 
militia of Missouri, I am greatly at a loss to 
know what could justify you in attacking citi- 
zens of the United .States, who are in the law- 
ful performance of duties devolving upon them 
under the Constitution, in organizing and in- 
structing the militia of the State in obedience 
to her laws, and thei-efore, have been disposed 
to doubt the correctness of the information I 
have received. I would be glad to know from 
you personally, whether there is any truth in 
the statements that are constantly poured into 
my ears. .So far as any hostility being in- 
tended towards the United .States or its pro- 
perty or representatives, by any portion of my 
command, or as far as I can learn — and I 
think 1 am fully informed — of any other part 
of the .State forces, I can say positively, that 
the idea has never been entertained. On the 
contrary, prior to your taking command of the 
Arsenal, I proffered to Major Bell, then in 
command of the very few troops constituting 
its guard, the services of myself and all my 
command, and, if necessary, the_whole power 
of the State, to protect the United States in 
the full possession of her property. Upon 
(jeneral Harney's taking command of this de- 
partment, I made the same proffer of services 
to him, and authorized his Adjutant-General, 
Capt. Williams, to communicate the fact that 
such had been done, to the War Dejiartment. 



I have had no occasion since to change any of 
the views I entertained at that time, neither of 
my own volition nor through orders of my 
constitutional commander. 

I trust that after this explicit statement, we 
may be able by fully understanding each other, 
to keep far from our borders the misfortunes 
which so unhappily afiflict our common coun- 
try. This communication will be handed to 
you by Col. Bo wen, my chief of staff, who 
may be able to explain anything not fully set 
forth in the foregoing. I am sir, very respect- 
fully, your obedient servant, 

D. M. Frost, 

Brigadier-* Jeneral Commanding, 
Camp Jackson, M. V. M. 

This letter shows how, by lies and 
fraud, the rebels endeavored to obtain 
possession of the U. S. military posts, 
and to deceive officers loyal to the 
Government. Lyon and his friends 
in St. Louis, were not misled by such 
tricks of the enemy. 

To the above, the following reply 
was sent by Gen. Lyon, on reaching 
the rebel camp, on the nth, by his 
aid. Major B. G. Farrar. 

" Head-quarters U. S. troops, St. Louis, Mo., 
May 10, 1861, Gen. D. M. Frost, command- 
ing Camp Jackson, .Sir: — Your command is 
regarded as evidently hostile to the govern- 
ment of the United States. It is for the most 
part made up of those .Secessioni.sts who have 
openly avowed their hostility to the general 
government, and have been plotting the sei- 
zure of its property and the overthrow of its 
authority. \'ou are upenly in ci.nnnunication 
with the so-called Southern Confederacy, 
which is now at war with the United .States; 
and you are receiving at your camp, from said 
Confederacy and under its Hag, large supplies 
of material of war, most of which is known 
to be the property of the United .States. These 
extraordinary preparations plainly indicate 
none other than the well known purpose of 
the Governor of this State, under whose orders 
you are acting, and whose purpose recently 
communicated to the Legislature, has just been 
responded to in the most unparalleled legisla- 
tion, and having in direct view hostilities to 
the General Govennnent and co-operation with 



O'J 



INSTOJiV OF CJIESTKIJ. 



its eiiciuio. In \ic\\ of iIu'mj cnll^i(lL■l■atillll^, 
and of your failure to disperse in oijedienee to 
the proclamation of the President, and of the 
eminent necessities of State policy and welfare, 
and the obligations imposed upon me by in- 
structions from Washington, it is my duty to 
demand, and I do hereby demand of you an 
immediate surrender of your command, with 
no other conditions than that all persons sur- 
rendering under this demand shall be humane- 
ly and kindly Ireiated. Believing myself pre- 
pared to enforce this demand, one-half hour's 
time before so doing will be allowed for your 
compliance therewith. Very respectfully, your 
obedient servant, 

Nathaniel Lyon, 
Cajitain 2d U. S. Infantry commanding." 

On receiving this letter, Gen. Frost 
called a council of his officers, and 
after a violent opposition from a por- 
tion of them, who preferred fighting, 
he sent an answer that he would sur- 
render. The mob element attached 
to Frost's camp, who were an irrespon- 
sible and desperate set, at this time 
fired some shots, one of which mor- 
tally wounded Captain Blandowski, a 
Union officer, and the fire was return- 
ed by two or three volleys, from a por- 
tion of the Union forces, which killed 
a number of persons in the crowd who 
had collected in the Rebel camp. 

This stroke of Lyon's in capturing 
the Rebel camp, was denounced by a 
large portion of the people of St. Uouis, 
as an unwarranted aggression upon 
State rights, and a deputation of quasi 
Union men was sent to Washington to 
a.sk that he might be relieved and dis- 
placed from all command, and no less 
a person than H. R. Gamble, after- 
wards Provisional Governor of the 
State, was their chief spokesman. 

To oppose this movement, Gen. 
Lyon sent Mr. Dick, under instruc- 
tions, as follows : 

" Head-quarters, St. Louis Arsenal, May 12, 
i86i'. Col. F. A. Dick, Acting Adjt. (ieneral. 
Sir: — With a \icw to put the War Depart- 



ment into jjossessiun uf the impoitant facts 
which have recently transpired at St. Louis, 
and in which you have taken an active part, 
and upon the solicitations of the citizens of 
this city, that some suitable messenger be sent 
to Washington to represent their interests there, 
you will for these purposes, as also to bear 
with you good dispatches, proceed with as 
little delay as practicable to Washington and 
report to the War Department. Very respect- 
fully your obedient servant, 

N. Lyon, 
Capt. 2d Infantry, Com'g." 

When Mr. Dick arrived at Wash- 
ington, he found that Lyon's enemies 
had already demanded of the President 
his removal from the command of the 
military forces in St. Louis. Mr. Dick 
appeared before President Lincoln and 
his Cabinet, and explained the necessi- 
ty that had been for the course taken, 
and showed that had Lyon waited for 
orders from Washington to take the 
initiative, it would have been probably 
too late, and that Gov. Jackson would 
have seized the Arsenal, and thus jjos- 
sessed himself of the immense supply 
of arms accumulated there, and also of 
the city of St. Louis. Had the rebels 
been allowed to get this start at that 
critical time, it would have precipitated 
the entire State of Missouri into the 
rebellion, which would have had an 
immense influence upon Kentucky and 
southern Illinois. Mr. Lincoln, after 
hearing both sides, approved of the 
course taken by Captain Lyon, and 
appointed him Brigadier General of 
volunteers. He was killed soon after 
at the battle of Wilson's Creek. 

NoTK. — James Alfred Pearce, LL. D., f>. 
Alexandria, Va., Dec. 4, 1805, </. Chestertown, 
Md., Dec. 24, 1862. He was a lawyer. A 
member of the Maryland Legislature in 1831. 
Member of Congress from 1835 to '39 and 1841 
to '43. Senator of the U. S. from 1843 to '62. 
In the Senate he was an earnest advocate of 
Harbor improvements, and though a Democrat, 
ardently devoted to the l^nion. .See A)ifi\ 300 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



4o: 



XLIII. 

In 1862, Mr. F. A. Dick was com- 
missioned by Gov. Gamble, of Mis- 
souri, to be Aid-de-Camp, with the 
rank of Lieut. Colonel, on the staff of 
Major General Samuel R. Curtis, who 
was in command of the Department of 
Missouri. General Curtis assigned 
Col. Dick to duty as Provost Marshal 
General of the Department, embracing 
the States of Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, 
Kansas, and parts of Illinois and Ten- 
nessee, and he continued so employed 
during 1862 and 1863. 

At the close of the Rebellion, Mr. 
Dick removed from St. Louis to Wash- 
ington, where, in partnership with 
Montgomery Blair, who had been Post- 
master General under Mr. Lincoln, he 
resumed the practice of his profession 
in the Supreme Court of the United 
States. An examination of the official 
reports of that high tribunal will show 
that he was engaged in many large and 
important cases ; and although he has 
lately removed to Philadelphia, he 
still continues his partnership with Mr. 
Blair, and his practice in the Supreme 
Court. Mr. Dick has a sincere and 
ardent love for his profession, and 
thinks no time or labor wasted which 
he devotes to the preparation of his 
cases. At the time of his removal 
from St. Louis, he purchased the com- 
fortable summer residence called "Hill- 
side," in the immediate vicinity of the 
beautiful town of West Chester, Pa., 
and spends his summers there. 

In the year 1849, ^^^ ^^^t move- 
ment was made in Missouri for the 
formation of a party to rid the State 
of slavery, and Mr. Dick, then in his 
early manhood, was an active suppor- 
ter of that movement, and continuously 
down to the outbreak of the rebellion, 

5 '2 



he was active and prominent as a 
member of the Free Soil Party in that 
State; and as such in 1857, he was 
elected to the Legislature, and there 
voted for the extinction of slavery in 
Missouri. He has, from its organiza- 
tion, been a member of the Republican 
party, and has been true to the anti- 
slavery principles of his great-grand- 
father, Archibald Dick, in 1782. Mr. 
Dick had been personally acquainted 
with General Grant when both were 
young men in St. Louis, aiTd on his 
removal to Washington in 1866, Gen. 
Grant, then being Commander-in- 
Chief of the army, and residing there, 
employed Mr. Dick in his personal 
legal business, and visited socially at 
his house, as was the General's custom 
with those he knew, in a friendly way. 
When the well-known case of Dent vs. 
Emmenger, reported in 14 Wallace, 
308, was in contemplation, which was 
after the first nomination of General 
Grant as candidate for the Presidency, 
he employed Mr. Dick as his counsel, 
to investigate the title under which 
the Dent family claimed the land in 
controversy, with a view of determin- 
ing whether or not the suit should be 
brought, which was for a large and 
valuable tract of land in St. Louis 
County, adjacent to the stock farm 
now owned by the President. Mr. 
Dick gave General Grant his written 
opinion against the validity of the 
Dent title, and advised him against 
the suit, upon which the General de- 
clared to the other members of the 
family of his wife, that he would have 
nothing to do with prosecuting the 
case. The suit was brought by the 
other members of the family, and the 
wisdom of Gen. Grant's course was 
shown by the result, for the case- was 
decided against the plaintiffs by the 



104 



HISTORY OF CIIESTKIJ. 



U. S. Circuit Court, and on ap))eal, by 
the unanimous decision of all the 
Judges of the U. S. Supreme Court. 

Among other cases argued by Mr. 
Dick in the U. S. Supreme Court, 
were the IJank Tax Cases, involving 
the ijower of the State of Missouri to 
tax National Banks. See 9 Wallace, 
46S. The case of the State of Mis- 
souri rs. the State of Kentucky, re- 
ported in II Wallace, 395, to deter- 
mine which State possessed the sover- 
eignty ov*r Wolf Island, in the Mis- 
sissippi River. The case of the Wash- 
ington University vs. Rouse, 8 Wal- 
lace, 439, and the Home of the Friend- 
less 7's. Rouse, 8 ib. 430, on the power 
of the State Legislature to tax Corpo- 
rations which had been exempted by 
a previous Legislature ; and the c:ase 
of the Wiggin's Ferry Company zx 
The City of St. Louis, 1 1 Wallace, 423, 
on the power of the city to tax the 
company ; also the late cases decided 
last winter of the Pacific Railroad Co. 
7's. Maguire, and the North Missouri 
Railroad Co. vs. the same, as to the 
power of the Missouri Legislature to 
tax those railroad companies ; and also 
the late case of the City of St. Louis 
7'S. the United States, in the Court of 
Claims, involving the title of nearly 
2000 acres of land on which Jefferson 
Barracks is located, 'i'hese were all 
jKiblic cases, involving political as well 
as legal questions, and in all of which 
Mr. Dick appeared for the State of 
Missouri, in which he had lived for so 
many years, excepting only the Wig- 
gin's Ferry Company case, in which 
he appeared against the City of St. 
Louis, and gained his case. Mr. Dick 
also continues to carry on a large legal 
business in St. Louis. His familiarity 
with Missouri land titles cau.sed him 
to be emj)loyed, after his removal to I 



Washington, in a large number of Cali- 
fornia Land cases, which were carried to 
the U. S. Supreme Court. Amongst 
these cases, which were of great magni- 
tude, as appears by the U. S. Supreme 
Court Reports, were those of De Haro 
7'S. United States, sWallace, 599 ; Kirk- 
patrick vs. O'Neill, ib. 591 ; Starr 7's. 
Stark, 6 ib. 402 ; Frisbie vs. Whitney, 

9 ib. 187 ; Hornsby ?'.>•. United States, 

10 il). 224; Roderigues 7's. Villa, 12 
ib. 323. The similarity between the 
land title system in Missouri and Cali- 
fornia lies in this : Both were originally 
colonies under the Dominion of Spain 
or France. Those governments grant- 
ed their lands to early settlers in large 
tracts, and before the titles to the lands 
were finally perfected, they ceded the 
country to the United States, which 
undertook to finally confirm and per- 
fect these inchoate titles. These titles 
were made up of an origin under the 
civil law which at first prevailed in 
those Colonies, along with colonial 
customs, and to these added the early 
laws of the territorial legislatures, and 
of Congress. This made an intricate 
system, and but few of the lawyers in 
St. Louis mastered it. At the com- 
mencement of his practice, Mr. Dick 
devoted himself to that branch of his 
profession, and on his removal to Wash- 
ington he was one of a limited number 
who were experienced in that system 
of law j hence his retention as counsel 
in the causes mentioned. 

Franklin A. Dick married, some 
years since, Myra M. Alexander, of 
Woodford County, Kentucky, daugh- 
ter of Andrew J. and Myra Madison. 
They have issue three sons, William 
Alexander, Evans Rogers and Frank- 
lin M. Dick. 

From the "Bench and Bar," vol. 
I, No. 3, Oct., 1869, I abbreviate the 



HISTORY OF GHESTEK. 



405 



following pleasantry in which two of | 
my friends, Franklin A. Dick and 1 
George Harding, figured. 

" It arose on a motion in the U. S. Supreme 
Court, in the great patent case, known as the 
' Car-Brake Case,' a cause involving the merits 
of the brake now universally used on railroad 
cars, a case, however, not reported — the Court 
being equally divided, no opinion was given. 
George Harding, of Philadelphia, eminent as 
a patent lawyer, and whose success in patent 
cases is due, partially, to the fact of his in- 
variably putting models of a very large size 
before the Court, so- that every member of the 
Bench can see from his seat the whole mechan- 
ism as it works, was in this case counsel for 
the patentee. Acting on his usual plan, so 
much complimented by the reporter in the 
' Hat-Body Case,' (Burr 7/s. Duryee, I Wal- 
lace, 532,) where a complete hat was manu- 
factured under the eyes of the Judges from a 
beaver-skin, George on this occasion resolved 
to show his Car-brake, as large as life. So as 
soon as the Court adjourned, he had construct- 
ed during the night a railroad car, with all 
the gearings, with the brakes, Sec, so that the 
Court could see and understand the motion 
about to be made, and the operation of the 
brake. Now it so happens that among the 
present leading practitioners of the .Supreme j 
Court Bar, is Mr. (Franklin A.) Dick, and | 
also Mr. Dickey, (O. J. Dickey, Esq., mem- 
ber of Congress,) gentlemen both, so honora- 
bly and widely known through the United 
States. In the morning these gentlemen hap- 
pened to arrive in Court a few minutes before 
the members of the Bar generally. They were 
naturally rather surprised to see the Court 
room looking so much like a railroad depot ; 
while standing in meditation as to the cause, 
a third gentleman came in, and seeing his two 
resjiected l)rethren in an attitude of contem- 
plation and inquiry, put in an instant, to their 
amusement, this dialogue into their mouth : 

Says Dick, here's surely something new I 
With cars and wagons of this sort ; 

What does George Harding mean to do ? 
Quoth Dickey : he will move the Court." 

Jacob Hewes, of Leiperville, says, 
among other things: "My grand- 
mother, Mary Hewes, who afterwards 



intermarried with Archibald Dick, had 
two children, Jacob, and Christianna, 
who married Elisha Dick, by whom 
she had Jacob, Mary, Rachel and Han- 
nah Dick. I don' t know what became 
of them. Jacob lived at one time in 
Philadelphia; Mary married a man 
named Marshall ; Rachel, a man nam- 
ed Anderson, and died in New Jersey. 
William Hewes, my g. grandfather, 
tradition says, came from Wales. The 
name was Hughes, afterwards changed 
to Hewes. He first took up land in 
New Jersey, near Salem, but abandon- 
ed it and took up a part of 1000 acres 
in Lower Chichester, and built a brick 
house on his purchase. On the sill of 
the front door the letters W. H. are 
cut. In this house my father, Jacob 
Hewes, and myself, were born. My 
father's first wife was Rachel, daughter 
of Thomas and Hannah Perkins They 
had but one child, Mary. His second 
wife, Esther, was the daughter of Isaac 
and Jane Pyle. They had issue, John, 
Jane, Isaac and Jacob. My father 
was married at Chichester meeting 
house. My g. grandfather, William 
Hewes, was, so says tradition, one of 
the founders of that meeting, and lays 
in the graveyard there, and my grand- 
father John, and my own father Jacob 
as well. My father was born 2 mo. 7, 
1752, died 4 mo. 29, 1795. ^7 ""^O" 
ther died 9 mo. 9, 1839, aged 76 yrs. 
3 months and 24 days. Father's first 
wife, Rachel, died 3 mo. 31, 1781. 
Jacob Hewes, of Leiperville, was born 
April 5, 1795, and married Eliza 
Mcllvain, daughter of Jeremiah and 
Elizabeth (Spencer) of Ridley. See 
Mcllvain's record, p. 317. They had 
issue, Spencer and Charles. Mrs. Eliza 
Hewes died 7 mo. 19, 1874, aged 80 
years. 

Gilbert Cope, the well-known Anti- 



406 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



iiuarian and Historical writer of West 
Chester, Pa., says : — 

"In regard to the Hewes family, 
Dr. Smith says it is supposed that 
William Hewes came over with Fen- 
wick, in 1675, but settled at Chiches- 
ter, about 1 6 78-' 9. I presume the 
name of his wife was Deborah, and 
they were both active members of 
Chichester Meeting, at the time of its- 
establishment. He died about 1698. 
William Hewes, Jr., was married in 
1689 to Sarah, the daughter of Edward 
and Ann Bezer. The proceedings of 
the meeting in regard to this marriage 
are given by Dr. Smith, omitting 
names ; but they must possess addi- 
tional interest when we know to whom 
they refer. ' The friends ordered to 
inquire of their clearness, life, & con- 
versation, report to this meeting they 
find nothing to obstruct : And whereas 
the young man heretofore has been 
given to be something wild, he of late 
years was become more sober, — it was 
proposed by friends to the young man 
and woman, 

I St. Whether he did beleeve y' was 
the Truth which wee proffesed «&: walk- 
ed in according to our measure — fur- 
ther shewing that if wee did not walk 
in the truth according to our measure 
given us, wee were but a Comunity of 
men and women, and not a Church of 
Christ : And then marriage would be 
as well by the Law of the Province as 
among us: And your comeing to us to 
propose your intention of marriage, 
and desireing our consent, is as wee are 
a Church of Christ, which we cannot be 
without we walke in Truth : Therefore 
whether thou dost beleeve That is the 
Truth we profes & walke in : His answer 
was Yes, He did beleeve it is. Also 
the young woman was asked the same. 
She answered, Yes, I doe l)eleevc it is. 



2dly. Whether you do beleeve that 
this way of marriage Among friends is 
According to the order of Truth : 

^dly. Whether you doe beleeve it 
is your duty thus to proceed : they, 
both Answer, Yes. ffriends said, as 
Paul to the Church of the Romans, 
chap. 14. I, Him y' is weake in the 
faith receive you, but not to doubtful 
disputations. Whereupon friends left 
them to proceed According to the good 
order of Truth, They both haveing 
their parents' Consent Thereunto. 

Dr. Smith supposed that the reason 
of this unusual catechism was owing to 
the parties not being members, but as 
their parents were, so would they be 
considered, in this Society. 

The bride's mother manifested so 
much dissatisfaction with the proceed- 
ings, that her case was referred to the 
Quarterly Meeting, which ' findes that 
the said monthly meeting did beare a 
little too hard upon the young couple.' 

William Hewes, a son (I presume) 
of this couple, was married 9 mo. 12, 
1 713, at Chichester Meeting, to Mary, 
the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth 
Withers, and grand -daughter of Jere- 
miah Collett, of Chichester, who was, 
T believe, the same who married Jane, 
eldest daughter of Joan May, of Devi- 
zes in Wilts, ' a first purchaser. ' He is 
styled a mason in some old writings, 
but probably followed farming to some 
extent. His wife survived him and 
died about 1 750. Their children were 
William, John, Samuel, Isaac, Caleb, 
Sarah, Lydia, Rebecca and Hannah. 
William married ( ist) Lydia Dutton 
and (2d) Rebecca Gregory, and died 
in 1753, leaving but one child, Aaron, 
to survive him. John married Mary, 
the daughter of Thomas Barnard, and 
grand-daughter of Richard and Frances 
Harnanl of Aston. He died in 1759, 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



407 



leaving two children, Christian and 
Jacob. His widow soon afterward mar- 
ried Archibald Dick, and her daughter 
married about 1764, Elisha Dick, who 
was probably a brother to Archibald. 
John Hewes, of Chichester, Tanner, 
in his will, dated Feb. 2, 1759, proven 
Mar. 2, 1759, gave to his wife Mary 
the Homestead for life, and afterwards 
to his children Christianna and Jacob. 
Also to his wife 200 acres in Douglass 
Township, Berks Co., purchased of 
Thomas Barnard, until the children 
became of age or married. Some other 
land in Chichester and Berks Co. to 
be sold by executors, his wife and 
Richard Dutton, of Aston. In case 
the children did not live to inherit, 
the property to go to ' Aaron Hewes, 
son of brother William, and to such 
sons of brother Samuel Hewes as should 
be living at the time.' Jacob Hewes 
was the father of the present Jacob 
Hewes, of Ridley. Samuel Hewes, 
above, married and settled in Jersey. 
Isaac married Lydia Weldon, and left 
a daughter. Sarah married Robert ?) 
Moulder and left a daughter Sarah, who 
married Nathaniel Falconer. Lydia 
married Wm. Grubb; Rebecca, Sam- 
uel Grubb; and Hannah, William 
Vaughan. Thomas Barnard above 
mentioned, married in 1715, Elizabeth 
Swayne, and i mo. 14, 1722-3, Sarah, 
the daughter of Jeremiah and Mary 
Carter, of Chester Township. It is be- 
lieved that the last wife was the mother 
of his children — Jacob, Isaac, Thomas 

and Mary. Isaac married Isabell , 

and I presume was the grandfather of 
Major Isaac D. Barnard. 

Thomas Barnard lived for a few 
years, in Berks County, where he mar- 
ried Sarah, dau. of Thomas Walker, 
but returned about 1759 to Chester 
County, bringing a little daughter. It 



seems that he married twice afterwards, 
and the last time was to his first cousin, 
for which he was disowned by meeting 
in 1766. Isaac, made acknowledg- 
ment in 1753, for marrying one not a 
member of meeting, by a Priest, but 
he was afterwards disowned in 1761. 
Hannah Barnard, daughter of Isaac, 
born II mo. 21, 1760, (died 4 mo., 
1826,) was received into membership 
by Friends, 3 mo. 5, 1783, and married 
6 mo. 12, 1783, Jacob Brown of West 
Nottingham. I suppose that James, 
father of Isaac D. Barnard, was a son 
of Isaac, as James signs the marriage 
certificate of Jacob Brown and Han- 
nah, as a near relation. Thomas Dick, 
also signs as a witness. 

In Deed Book X, p. 447, April 3, 
1773, is recorded a deed from Archi- 
bald Dick of Lower Chichester, and his 
wife Mary, to Samuel Walker of Lower 
Chichester, Yeoman, for 5^ acres of 
land, from John Morton, Sheriff, Mar. 
17, 1767. In Book V, p. 418, July 5, 
1776, Archibald Dick, Yeoman, and 
Mary, to John Power, of Lower Chi- 
chester, scrivener, for a piece of ground 
in Chichester, which Samuel Howell 
and John Power, executors of William 
Howell of Chichester, (Marcus Hook,) 
had conveyed to Archibald Dick, June 
8, 1776, also a deed of Thomas Dick 
to Jacob Hewes, 4 mo. 13, 1787, for 
31^ acres of land, part of estate of 
Archibald Dick, for ^,^238. 

I insert here an old Avriting called 
" The Barnard Record, ' ' made in 1 841 , 
by William Barnard now deceased, and 
supposed to have been copied by him 
from an older writing of his uncle 
Joseph, (with some additions,) which 
was found among his papers: "I am 
told that my g. g. grandfather came from 
Sheffield, in old England, when a young 
man, inrompany with William Pcnn, in 



408 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



1682, and settled in Middletown. His 
name was Richard Barnard. His son 
Richard, my g. grandfather, was born 
in this country about the year 1684, 
and had one brother whose name was 
Thomas, and five sisters, Sarah who 
married Joseph* Cobourn, Mary mar- 
ried Jacob Roman, Lucy married 
Thomas Button, Lydia married Daniel 
Walker, and Rebecca married Enoch 
Flower. Thomas had three sons and 
one daughter (Mary) who married a 
Hugh, (John Hewes,) and Archibald 
Dick, and lived near Chichester. Tho- 
mas lived in Aston, on lands purchased 
by his father. 

"Great-grandfather (Richard Bar- 
nard), settled in Marlborough Town- 
ship, and married Ann, daughter of 
Abiah and Deborah Taylor, who also' 
came from old England, said g. grandr 
father had three sons and four daugh- 
ters, namely Jeremiah, Richard, Tho- 
mas, Sarah, Deborah, Sarah and Lydia. 
Jacob Roman's sons were Jacob, Isaac, 
Abraham and Philip. Lucy Dutton's 
children were Richard, John, David, 
Thomas and one daughter. Lydia 
Walker's children were Jacob, Daniel; 
and Rebecca who married Jacob Tho- 
mas ; Deborah who married a Thomas ; 
Zillah, who married Thomas Maule 
and Joshua Brown ; Beulah who mar- 
ried Samuel Richards, and Mary who 
married and died young. Rebecca 
Flower, had Elizabeth, married Sam- 
uel Oaks, Rebecca married a Lincoln, 
Mary married Richard Anderson. 

" My g. g. grandparents, (Abiah and 

*This should l)c William Coeboiinie, to 
whom she was married in 1721, beinjr then the 
widow of William Flower. 

In Hotten's lists of Emigrants to America, 
mention is made of a Richard Barnard, aged 
23, who went from England to Barbadoes in 
1634, and it is thought by some that he may- 
have been the ancestor of the Chester County 
family. 



Deborah) Taylor, had children, Ann, 
Deborah, Alice and Samuel. Ann m. 
Richard Barnard, Deborah vi. Jona- 
than Parke, Alice m. Daniel Hoopes. 
Deborah's (Parke) children were, Jo- 
seph; Deborah, who married Samuel 
Cope ; Rebecca in. James Webb ; Alice 
m. Col. John Hannum. Alice Hoopes' 
children were, Joshua; Deborah, who 
married James Gibbons ; Samuel and 
Benjamin. Samuel Taylor's children 
were, Abiah, Abraham, John, Isaac ; 
Mary, 711. Samuel Sellers ; and Debo- 
rah 7)1. Jonathan Sellers. 

" My g. g. grandfather Taylor's 
brother Joseph, settled in Kennett, 
(now Pennsbury,) had children, Jere- 
miah, Joseph, Richard, Benjamin ; 
Hannah, who married William Tem- 
ple, and Sarah, married to John 
Jones. Richard's (Taylor) children 
were, John, Joseph, and one daugh- 
ter (Hannah), who married Richard 
Woodward. Benjamin (Taylor) had 
Isaac (Esquire) ; Benjamin, the father 
of Joseph, who lived where Stephen 
Darlington now does ; Elizabeth, who 
married Emmor Jeffries; Hannah, ///. 
Samuel Morton ; Ann married Joseph 
Cope. 

"My grandmother's g. grandfathers 
were Joseph Baker and Robert Cham- 
berlin. Her grandparents, Joseph Ba- 
ker and John Chamberlin. Her grand- 
mothers' names before their marriage 
were, Mary Worrildw and Lettice Key. 
Her parents, Joseph Baker and Mary 
Chamberlin. My grandmother's name 
before marriage was Lettice Baker. 
Great-grandfather Baker had two sis- 
ters, Sarah and Hannah. Sarah mar- 
ried Isaac Strode, Hannah, Josei^li 
Talbert or Talbot. Sarah's children 
were, Joseph, Thomas, James, George 
and Elizabeth ; Hannah's were, Jo- 
seph, John, Jacob, Margaret, Mary, 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



409 



Martha, Rachel, Hannah, Elizabeth 
and Susannah. Margaret in. Thomas 
Grizel ; Mary m. ist Robert Rogers, 
and 2dly, John Brinton ; Martha in. 
Daniel Broomall ; Rachel in. Francis 
Townsend ; Hannah in. Francis But- 
ton ; Elizabeth in. ist Isaac Sharpless 
and 2dly, Reese Cadwallader ; Susan- 
nah m. Nathan Pennell. 

''Great-grandfather's mother mar- 
ried Dr. John Taylor, and had John, 
Philip, Isaac, Jacob, Martha and Mary. 
John left three children, Mary, Isaac 
and Sarah ; the first, Mary, in. Per- 
siferFrazer; Martha w. William Emp- 
son, and left one daughter. 

" Great -grandmother Baker's bro- 
thers and sisters were, William, John, 
Isaac, Elizabeth and Ann Chamber- 
lin. Elizabeth ///. William Hughs, 
(Hewes?) Ann in. Charles Ryan. 
Grandmother's uncle, John Chamber- 
lin's sons lived in Maryland ; their 
names were Abner and Hoopes Cham- 
berlin. Grandmother's grandfather 
Baker's sister, Sarah, married Thomas 
Smedley. Richard Barnard, my grand- 
father, married Susannah Eckhoff ; 
they had two children, Jeremiah and 
•Rachel ; Jeremiah m. Elizabeth Pass- 
more ; Rachel in. Joseph Reynolds, 
who moved to Ohio. Richard mar- 
ried again Lettice Baker, who died 8 
mo. 17, 1821, in her Both year. Rich- 
ard died 4 mo. 6, 1813, in his 90th 
year. Their children were, Joseph, 
who married Mary Meredith ; Mary 
in. William Thompson ; Richard in. 
Sarah Chambers ; Lydia ;//. George 
Darlington; Amos, died 12 mo. 18, 
1809, in his 3 2d year; Judith in. Moses 
Baily ; Cyrus in. Rachel Wilson ; Let- 
tice, Abiah and Elizabeth, died i mo. 
31, 1821." 

Richard Barnard, died 6 mo. 21, 
1 841, his wife Sarah, died 3 mo. 29, 



1837, aged 68 years, 9 months and 27 
days. Their children were, Joseph C. 
in. Phoebe Williams, and had a son, 
John ; Amos in. Ann Wilson ; Elihu 
in. Mary Williams ; William in. Ruth 
Stubbs ; Eusebius in. Sarah Painter; 
Cyrus died 9 mo. 19, 1808 ; Ezra T., 
died 6 mo. 7, 1808; Cyrus T. ;//. Jane 
Humes; Elizabeth and Philena, died 
I mo. 15, 1813. 

"John and Lettice Chamberlin's 
children were, Mary, in. ist, Joseph 
Baker and 2dly, Andrew McCoy ; Wil- 
liam married, and lived near Westtown 
School ; John married, and his sons 
lived in Maryland ; Elizabeth married 
a Hughs ; Ann married Charles Ryan. 

"Joseph and Mary Baker's children ; 
John, who lives on Prince Edward's 
Island ; Lettice, who married Richard 
Barnard; Mary, unmarried; Elizabeth 
married Thomas Brown. The children 
of Andrew and Mary McCoy ; Robert, 
William, Andrew, Isaac, Joseph and 
Martha, who all lived in Maryland. 
The children of William Chamberlin ; 
Moses, John, married and lived near 
Strode's mill, and had children; Isaac 
married and lived in Marlborough, 
had no children; Hannah; Martha; 
Lettice, Avho married James Wood- 
ward, and moved to Nottingham ; 
Mary and Elizabeth." 

I had a client, a Richard Barnard, 
of Doe Run, Chester County, born 
Nov. 3, 1789, and went to California, 
in April, 1849, although near 60 years 
of age, taking with him several work- 
men, and some mining apparatus, and 
died there Jan. 13, 1850. He married 
Sarah, a daughter of William McNeil, 
and had three children. Priscilla, 
married to Enos Pennock ; Richard ; 
and Jemima, who married Dr. Charles 
T. Carpenter, of Massachusetts, but 
whose jiarents, Thomas and Haiir.ali, 



IIU 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



now reside in Marshaltun, Chester 
County, Dr. C. was a man of con- 
siderable ability, but failed to agree 
with his wife, and I obtained her a 
divorce from him, Oct. 29, 1859. She 
was a very pretty little woman, and 
afterwards married John A. Tyler, of 
California, where she died. 

Dr. Smith, p. 443, says, among other 
things concerning Major Isaac D. Bar- 
nard,, who was the most distinguished 
of his family in this county as a soldier 
and a lawyer, that he was the son of 
James and Susanna, of Aston, born in 
I 79 1 . His father being elected Sheriff 
in 1792, purchased a farm near Ches- 
ter. In 1800, being appointed Regis- 
ter, Recorder and Clerk of the Courts 
of the county, he removed into the 
town ; he died in 1806. Isaac became 
his father's clerk at the early age of 
thirteen, and Thomas B, Dick, who 
succeeded his father in office, retained 
him in his employ. In 181 1, he com- 
menced the study of the law, with 
William Graham, Esq. While a stu- 
dent he was appointed a Captain in the 
regular army, and during the War of 
181 2, was promoted to a Majorship for 
bravery at the capture of Fort George. 
He was also in the battle of Plattsburg, 
and at Lyon Creek. After the war he 
resumed his studies, and was admit- 
ted to the Bar of Delaware County, 
June 16, 1 816, on the same day that 
his cousin, Archibald T. Dick, was 
admitted. He was previously admit- 
ted to practice at West Chester, on 
May 7th,, and settled in that town, 
and was appointed Deputy Attorney 
General soon after. In 1820, he was 
elected to the State Senate. In 1826, 
he was appointed Secretary of the 
Commonwealth by Gov. Shultz, and 
about a year afterwards elected to the 
U. S. Senate, but resigned in 1831, 



on account of ill health. About 1817, 
he married Henrietta, the eldest daugh- 
ter of Isaac Darlington, Esq., after- 
wards President Judge of the Courts of 
Delaware and Chester Counties, and 
died in 1834, at the early age of 43 
years. 

XLIV. 

Until very recently, the only reli- 
gious sects who had places of worship 
in Chester, were the Episcopalians and 
Friends, both of whom now have two. 
The Friends — Hicksite, worship in 
the fine large meeting-house on Mar- 
ket Street, south of Third. The Or- 
thodox meeting-house is at Sharpless' 
woods, Shcemakerville. The Episco- 
palians have two churches — St. Paul's 
and a new church called St. Luke's, 
lately erected, and which was first open- 
ed for Divine service on Sunday, May 
8, 1870. The church is situated on 
ground given by Mr. Ward, on the 
corner of Broomall and Third Streets, 
South Ward, and the Rev. F. R. List 
is the minister. In the Republican of 
June 27, 1873, it is stated that the 
Rev. Mr. List, pastor of St. Luke's* 
Church of this place, has been pre- 
sented by some of his friends and fel- 
low-students with a solid silver com- 
munion set for the sick. 

The Delaware County Pafer and 
7l/rt// for Feb. 13, 1877, states: 

A Move in the Right Direction. — On Sun- 
day last the congregation of St. Luke's Epis- 
copal Church in this city, voted upon the 
question whether or not the church should 
adopt the free pew and envelope contribution, 
and it was carried in the affirmative l)y an 
unanimous vote. The Rector, Rev. Mr. 
Moore, announced that on the first Sunday in 
Lent the pews would be free to all. We look 
upon this movement as one eminently proper 
to be made, and believe the congregation will 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



411 



never regret having adopted the system of 
voluntary contributions for the support of the 
church. 

In 1832, the Methodists made their 
first efforts towards collecting a con- 
gregation in Chester, and met occa- 
sionally in the old Court House. I 
am under the impression that their 
first place of worship was a frame 
building on the east side of Market 
Street, between Second and Third 
Streets, standing back from the street, 
nearly opposite the Friends' meeting- 
house ; and I believe that frame struc- 
ture is still standing in the rear of 
" Asbury Chapel," its rear facing 
the new street that runs to the east of 
the chapel. In 1834, their increase 
of membership justified them in erect- 
ing a small place of worship, which is 
the stone structure on Filbert (now 
Second) Street, east of Market Street, 
on the north side. It was erected 
about 1836 or '37. The late David 
Abbott was one of the principal ex- 
horters at the prayer meetings, which at 
times became very enthusiastic. The 
building was sold some time since 
to the African Methodist Episcopal 
Church, and is called now " Asbury 
Chapel," and the edifice was re-built 
in 1867. The old Asbury Chapel, 
erected about 1833 or '34, was a frame 
structure, still standing on Welsh St., 
south of Third Street, west side, and is 
at present unoccupied. The Rev. Mr. 
Smith was the preacher at Asbury 
Chapel about 30 years ago. Near, 
and south of the old Asbury Chapel 
on Welsh Street, stands a plastered 
brick or stone church, called " Ches- 
ter Union Methodist Church," built 
in i860, opposite the present City Gas 
Works. This building, like Asbury 
Chapel, belongs to the colored Me- 
thodists. 



The second Methodist meeting-house 
or church of the (white) Methodists, 
was erected about 1840, on the north 
side of Fifth Street, west of Market ; 
the Rev. Newton Heston was the first 
minister, I believe. The building is 
now used and occupied by Tuscarora 
Tribe of Red Men, and has on its front 
the following : "Tuscarora Hall, insti- 
tuted Nov. 8th, 1872." Job Wheaton 
is the Superintendent. 

The third church is located in South 
Ward, at the corner of Third and Par- 
ker Streets, and was built about six 
years ago. The pastor is the Rev. 
Samuel Pancoast. 

The fourth church, just completed, 
(1873), is situated at the northeast 
corner of Seventh and Madison Streets. 
It is built of Delaware County green 
stone, and is decidedly the handsom- 
est church in Chester. The pastor is 
the Rev. J. B. Maddux. The corner 
stone of this church was laid on Wed- 
nesday evening, July 17, 1872, with 
appropriate ceremonies. The Rev. 
Henry Brown, of St. Paul's, read a 
psalm ; the Rev. Mr. Sproull, the late 
minister of the Presbyterian Church, 
read a chapter from the New Testa- 
ment, and the sermon was delivered 
by the Rev. Mr. Cunningham, the 
late pastor of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church on Fifth Street. At the close 
of this address, he gave an interesting 
history of the Church, in Chester, for 
the past 40 years. The names of the 
preachers since the first organization 
in 1845, to that time, he gave as 
Messrs. Merrill, Storks, Shields, Hes- 
ton, Hare, Maddux, Mullin, Arthur, 
Johns, Ruth, Urie, Meredith, Gilroy, 
Cunningham and Maddux. On Sun- 
day, May 3, 1874, the church was 
dedicated with appropriate ceremo- 
nies and opened for Divine service. 



412 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



The South Cliester M. E. Church 
was erected in 1S71. It then had 16 
members and probationers. It now 
has 179 total membership, 52 of whom 
are probationers. During the i)ast 
thirteen months, 187 persons have 
professed conversion. The Confer- 
ence on March 24, 1875, named the 
Rev. Joseph Welsh, pastor of the 
Madison Street Church ; the Rev. S. 
W. Kurtz, pastor of Trinity Church; 
and Rev. David McKee, pastor of the 
church in South Chester. 

The corner stone of St. Daniel's 
African Methodist Episcopal Church 
of South Chester, was laid on Sunday, 
Oct. 12, 1873. 

The Catholic Church of "St. Mi- 
chael the Archangel," at Chester, owes 
its foundation to a number of Irish 
Catholics employed in Judge Leiper's 
quarries, who having no place of wor- 
ship nearer than the church on Dennis 
Kelley's property at Cobbs Creek, 
or James Willcox's Chapel at "Ivy 
Mills," about nine miles distant, 
agreed among themselves to contri- 
bute towards the erection of a church 
building more convenient ; and for 
the purpose of obtaining the aid of 
a Catholic Priest to organize a con- 
gregation among them, they applied 
to the Rt. Rev. Bishop Kendrick of 
Philadelphia, who appointed the Rev. 
Father Sheriden, now the venerable 
pastor of St. Paul's Church in that 
city, to attend them. Under his di- 
rection and guidance, a lot was pur- 
cha.sed in Chester for the purpose of 
erecting thereon a new church for 
their accommodation. The corner 
stone was laid Sept. 29, 1842, and on 
June 25, 1843, the church was dedi- 
cated to Almighty God, under the 
patronage of St. Michael the Arch- 
angel, in the ])resence of a very large 



assembly from Philadelphia and the 
surrounding country. This structure 
is of stone from Leiper's quarries on 
Crum Creek, of the Gothic style of 
architecture, 42 by 72 feet, with a 
square tower, and spire 100 feet high, 
surmounted by a gilt cross. In the 
tower is hung a fine toned bell, 1000 
pounds in weight, which is rung twice 
a day. A sacristy, 12 by 22 feet, has 
been erected adjoining the church on 
the south side. 

A parsonage, 34 feet square and 
three stories high, was erected on the 
church lot by the present pastor, the 
Rev. Arthur Peter Haviland, who, 
with his assistant, the Rev. Hugh Mc- 
Glinn, reside therein. An additional 
lot adjoining the church property, was 
purchased in 1866, and on it in 1871, 
was erected a parochial school -house, 
60 by 24 feet, and two stories high, 
capable of accommodating 500 chil- 
dren. It is used for a Sunday-School, 
with about 300 scholars in attend- 
ance, and as a day school for male 
and female children on separate floors, 
under the care of two teachers. The 
average attendance is 180 scholars. 
The expense of supporting both schools 
is defrayed by the congregation. 

The congregation of St. Michael's, 
when its first resident pastor, the Rev. 
Arthur P. Haviland, was appointed, 
July 12, 1850, numbered about 250; 
now, owing to the rapid increase of 
the population of Chester, it is some- 
what more than 2000, for whose ac- 
commodation there are four services 
on Sunday, to be continued until a 
large church will be erected, for which 
arrangements are already made. 

Since writing the above, the old 
church edifice, so long a marked fea- 
ture of Chester, has been torn down, 
and a more im])osing, spacious and 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



413 



commodious building is in the course | 
of erection on the site of the old struc- 
ture, and is rapidly approaching com- 
pletion. The corner stone of the new 
church was laid on Nov. i, 1874, by 
the Rt. Rev. Bishop Wood, with ap- 
propriate ceremonies. The cost of 
the new church will be about $70,000. 
The height of the tower from the ground , 
of stone, will be 96 ft., upon this there 
will be a wooden spire of 84 ft., mak- 
ing a total height of 180 feet. The 
length of the building will be 167 ft., 
breadth 67 ft. The basement has been 
finished and occupied for about two 
years (1877). The masonry and stone- 
cutting of the new church are being 
done by Ramsden Rawnsley. The 
erection being made under the direc- 
tion of the Rev. Mr. Haviland, the 
pastor. 

A Cemetery, seven acres in extent, 
was purchased in 1864, a short mile 
out of Chester, which has been pro- 
perly fenced in, and is used for the 
interment of deceased members of the 
congregation. Previous to the instal- 
lation of the resident pastor, clergymen 
from Philadelphia officiated as tem- 
porary Missionaries at St. Michael's, 
among whom may be mentioned Rev. 
Thaddeus Amat, the Principal of the 
Theological Seminary of St. Charles 
Borromeo, Philadelphia, now Bishop 
of Monterey, California; also, Rev. 
Dr. O'Hara, now Bishop of Scranton, 
Pa. , the congregation being small and 
not able to support a resident pastor. 

Last year the residents of South 
Ward, who worshipped at St. Michael's, 
conceived the idea of erecting a new 
church for the accommodation of those 
who objected to the distance to the old 
church. Bishop Wood lent his sanc- 
tion to the erection of a new parish, 
and the work of collecting subscrip- 



tions was commenced. The success 
of the enterprise has been so great as 
to warrant the building of a temporary 
structure for the new congregation, un- 
til a permanent edifice can be erected, 
which has been finished and is now 
used for worship. And on Sept. 20, 
1874, the corner stone of the new 
church was laid by the Rt. Rev. Bi- 
shop Wood, of Philadelphia, assisted 
by the Rev. I. J. Horstman, and other 
clergy, with appropriate ceremonies, 
in the presence of a large assemblage. 
The new church will be called " The 
ChiD'ch of the Immaculate Heart of 
Maty.'' 

In Heckewelder' s Diary of a Journey 
to Pet(]uotting, about 1 790, it is said : 
' ' Five miles from Carlisle we came upon 
a Presbyterian pulpit, of which we saw 
several on the journey. They were 
built against a tree, around which the 
people encamped. A stairway of three 
or four steps led up to the pulpit, over 
which a small roof was built." Al- 
though the Presbyterians were thus 
early spreading the tenets of their sect 
abroad in this State, it was not until 
1850, they made their first efforts at 
Chester, under the auspices of the Rev. 
James W. Dale. He preached in the 
Court House for over a year. In 1852, 
the First Presbyterian Church, a fine 
brick building, mastic on the outside, 
situated at the S. E. corner of Fourth 
and Welsh Streets, was erected. Mr. 
Dale was succeeded by the Rev. J. O. 
Steadman, for two years. His suc- 
cessor for two years more, was Rev. 
George Van Wyck, and in 1856, the 
Rev. Alexander W. Sproull became 
the first regular pastor. The present 
incumbent, the Rev. Philip H. Mowry, 
was installed Dec. 11, 1873. 

The Second Presbyterian Church is 
in South Ward, west of Chester Creek, 



414 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



situated on the corner of Third and 
Ulrich Streets, and was erected in 1867. 
The Rev. A. T. Dobson is the minister. 

The Third Presbyterian Church is 
situated at the S. E. corner of Twelfth 
and Upland Streets. . The lot was 
purchased in 1871, and the walls of 
a memorial Sunday-School Chapel 
were built, partially (in commemora- 
tion of the union of the churches of 
the old and new school) on the lot, 
by the residents of the neighborhood, 
connected at that time with the first 
church, of which the Rev. A. W. 
SprouU was pastor. In Oct., 1872, 
sixty-two members of the first church 
took letters of dismission, and were 
organized Oct. 16, 1872, into the 
" Third Presbyterian Church of Ches- 
ter." The building upon the lot was 
immediately finished, and served as a 
chapel until July, 1873, when proving 
too small, one end was removed and 
25 feet added to it. The Rev. Dr. 
Edwin W. Bowers, of Lincoln Uni- 
versity, was temporary minister of the 
church, as stated supply, until Feb. 13, 
1873, when the present pastor, the 
Rev. Charles F. Thomas, was called, 
and installed May 6, 1873. 

The lot upon which the chapel is built 
is 146 feet square, and cost ^^3000, 
while the total cost of the present brick 
edifice was about ^8000. The church 
commenced its first year with 62 mem- 
bers, and 40 scholars in the Sabbath 
School. The total • membenship in 
Jan., 1874, was 81, the congregation 
400, and in the Sabbath School 350 
scholars. 

The Baptists, in the- fall of 1854, 
began a series of monthly religious 
services in Chester, which were held 
in the old Court House for four years. 
Rev. Wm. Wilder officiating. Early 
in the spring of 1858, John P. Crozer, 



Esq., donated a lot of ground on the 
corner of Penn and Second Streets, 
on which, during the summer of the 
same year, Benjamin Gartside erected 
a chapel for the use of the Baptists, at 
a cost of $1100, which building, in 
the rear of the present church edifice, 
is now occupied as an infant Sunday- 
School. This chapel was formally 
opened for religious services in August, 
1858, and from that time preaching 
was regularly held every Sabbath after- 
noon by Rev. W. Wilder, of Upland, 
and Rev. Miller Jones, of Marcus 
Hook. Here the infant congregation 
worshipped until the 24th of Septem- 
ber, 1863, when the chapel was recog- 
nized as the First Baptist Churcli of 
Chester. The membership at that 
date consisted of 21 persons, who had 
been mostly dismissed by letters from 
the Upland Baptist Church. Imme- 
diately after the recognition, an effort 
was made to secure a permanent pas- 
tor, and in Jan., 1865, Rev. J. Newton 
Brown, D. D., was called to su])ply 
the pulpit for three months, and con- 
tinued to preach for fivemonths, when, 
on the I St of June, Rev. Levis G. Beck 
became the first regular pastor of the 
church and continued in that capacity 
for nearly two years, when he resigned 
his charge to accept the appointment 
of Secretary of the Pennsylvania Bap- 
tist General Association. It was dur- 
ing this time that the present church 
edifice was completed, at a cost of 
$16,000. It is a brick structure, 90 
by 46 feet. On the lower floor, above 
the level of the street, is the lecture 
room and Sunday-School, and in the 
rear, the pastor's study and a Bible 
class room. The auditorium is in the 
second story, and is beautifully fur- 
nished. The wall and ceiling are 
tastefully painted in oil colors, and a 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



415 



fine organ placed in the gallery at a 
cost of $2,000. This church is claim- 
ed, in its ventilating facilities, to be 
superior to all other public buildings 
in Chester, and will seat comfortably 
600 persons. After the resignation of 
Mr. Beck, the church was dependent 
on supplies for the pulpit until Nov., 
1866, when the Rev. A. F. Shanafelt, 
the present pastor, was called. In 
March following he entered upon his 
pastoral duties. A number of promi- 
nent Baptists immediately purchased 
a lot of ground adjoining the church, 
and a parsonage was erected thereon 
by the liberality of Benjamin Gartside, 
Esq., at a cost of over $4,000, which 
was occupied by the pastor in De- 
cember, 1867. The church is in a 
flourishing condition, and has now 
over 250 members. 

In 1870, James Irving, Esq., erected 
a handsome brick chapel, which he 
dedicated to the Baptist Society at 
Shoemakerville, North Chester, now 
in charge of Rev. E. Wells. In 1871, 
Samuel A. Crozer, Esq. , erected a Bap- 
tist Chapel in South Chester, which is 
now in charge of Rev. R. McNeil. 
Both of these edifices are the result of 
munificent benevolence on the part of 
these two well-known members of the 
Baptist Church. 

The First Baptist Church in Chester 
has in active working a Congregational 
Relief Association, with a member- 
ship of over 80 members. The object 
of the Society, as its name imports, is 
the relief of the families or nearest re- 
latives of deceased members. The 
funeral benefits payable on the decease 
of a member of the Association at this 
time, (1874), is $40, and the amount 
is constantly increasing with the mem- 
bership. The Society is in the fourth 
year of its usefulness, and the progress 



it has made should recommend the 
plan to other religious bodies. With 
the First Baptist Church the idea ori- 
ginated, and it is the only church in 
the country, of which we have any 
knowledge, that has made an experi- 
ment of this kind a success. 

Camp Meetings, so-called, are meet- 
ings held by some religious societies, 
generally by the Methodists, during 
the summer season, in some pleasant, 
shady spot in the country, and last 
for a week or more. These meetings 
are partially of a social character, 
although chiefly held for religious ser- 
vices, consisting of prayer meetings 
in the tents erected for the visitors 
on the camping ground. Morning 
and evening services, consisting of 
out-door sermons and singing under 
the trees are held two or three times 
during the day. At such places there 
are of course many visitors who are 
merely lookers on in Vienna. Fre- 
quently the exciting prayers of the 
preachers get up a kind of revival in 
the tents, especially among the women, 
who pray, scream, faint, tear their 
hair, and sometimes go into ecstatic 
convulsions ; especially is this the case 
at the Camp Meetings of the negroes, 
who are a more excitable race than the 
whites. Booths are erected around 
the camps for the sale of provisions, 
and despite the attempts of those who 
are really in earnest in doing good, 
there are sometimes scenes of disturb- 
ance at the camps; but generally those 
who go to look on are content to en- 
joy "the fun," as they call it, in a 
quiet way, finding pleasure in the dis- 
play of an excess of religious feeling 
in others. The Methodists hold that 
these meetings do much good, and I 
also think they do. I have been to 
many a one to see the fun when I was 



416 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



a boy, and when order was not so well 
preserved as now, and I never heard 
that the effect of a camp meeting on 
a neighborhood was injurious, although 
it gives chances for many kinds of 
indulgences not usual. 

The matter is now reduced to a sys- 
tem. At a meeting of several Camp 
Meeting Associations, held in Phila- 
delphia, Jan. 14, 1874, the following 
was recommended as the time for 
holding the various camp meetings in 
this vicinity during the coming sum- 
mer, viz : 

Ocean Grove, Union Convention, 
July 9, 1874. 

Rehoboth Camp Meeting, July 14. 

Chester Heights Camp, July 21st. 

Pitman's Grove Camp, August 4th. 

Landisville Camp, August 4th. 

Ocean .Grove Camp, August 14th. 

The following was also unanimously 
passed by the meeting : 

'■^Resolved, By this conference of re- 
presentatives of several Camp Meet- 
ing associations. That we heartily in- 
dorse and commend that section in 
the late pastoral address of our bishops 
which calls attention to the subject of 
Camp Meetings, and recommend sim- 
plicity and spirituality in worship and 
a strict regard to the sanctity of the 
holy Sabbath, and we will discourage 
the running of excursion trains and all 
other travel on that day, except such 
as is usual in worshippers attending 
church service, as well as all Sabbath 
traffic on and about our respective 
grounds." 

During the year 1872, an association 
of Methodists purchased a farm in x-Xs- 
ton Township, Delaware County, and 
had the association incorporated under 
the name of the "Chester Heights 
Camp Meeting Association." 

The grounds belonging to the Asso- 



ciation embrace 162 acres, and are 
located immediately on the line of the 
Baltimore Central Railroad, and about 
twenty miles from Philadelphia. The 
place has been named Chester Heights. 
About 60 acres of the purchase is fine 
woodland, divided into two groves, 
both of which are to be fitted up as 
excursion grounds, the Association 
expecting to realize a good dividend 
on their investment outside of the 
Camp Meetings. The improvements 
so far made consist of an Excursion 
House, 70 by 120 feet, a portion of 
it being two stories high, to be used 
as lodging rooms during the camp. 
In the rear, the building is one story 
and open at the sides, and is designed 
for use in rainy weather. The preachers' 
stand is formed by a wide hall running 
through the front building. From 
this sfand, the tents, principally can- 
vas, extend for some distance up, the 
ground having a considerable rise, af- 
fording the audience a fine view of the 
speakers. Three hundred iron settees, 
capable of seating about 3,000 per- ' 
sons, afford accommodations to those 
Avho attend the religious services. The 
water supply is furnished from a neigh- 
boring stream, being forced up to the 
grounds by means of a steam pump. 

The act incorporating the Associa- 
tion provides that the grounds shall 
not be used for any purposes in opposi- 
tion to the Discipline of the Methodist 
Church, therefore, no excursions are 
allowed where dancing is permitted. 
The grounds are almost daily occupied 
bySunday-.schools, Churches, &c., and 
therefore, the speculation promises to 
be all right. The sixty acres used for 
the camp are enclosed with a close 
fence, seven feet high, with gates for 
the admission of those attending the 
meetings. As the Camp Meeting is 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



417 



gotten up by the Association, they 
expect to derive their revenue from 
the rent obtained from tents, one hun- 
dred having been erected by the Asso- 
ciation ; from per centage from board- 
ing tents, restaurant and other tents hav- 
ing articles for sale. The charge for a 
canvas tent, 7x7 feet, without a floor, 
is ^3 for ten days, and $4 with floor. 
Family tents, 14X 14 feet, with floors, 
$12. Persons putting up their own 
tents pay one cent per square foot for 
the use of the ground, on the main 
circle. 

The Association furnishes to minis- 
ters free railroad tickets to the grounds, 
and lodgings while at the camp, but 
not meals, though they are allowed a 
discount of twenty per cent, on the 
charge. The expenses of lighting, 
police, water supply, &c. , is of course, 
met by the Association. The religious 
services each day will be as follows : 
Early meeting, 5 A. M., consisting of 
prayer and experience ; preaching. 
10 A. M., 3, 6.30 and 7.30 P. M. ; 
children's meeting, 1.30 P. M. The 
hour of each meeting will be announc- 
ed not by the primitive horn, but by 
the ringing of a fine-toned bell. 

The following account of Camp 
Meetings in the West, 50 years ago, 
will remind many persons of such 
meetings in Delaware County not so 
long ago. T copy from Lippincott' s 
Magazine for August, 1873 : 

"The order of the day Mould be ahnost 
uniformly this : The horn (which was a long 
tin one, hung in the preaching stand), was 
sounded at sunrise, when it was expected that 
all persons in the tents would rise. Half an 
hour later it was blown again for family wor- 
ship, which must be observed in every tent, 
after which breakfast was prepared and eaten. 
At eight or nine, according to the season, the 
horn announced prayer meeting in the tents; 
at ten, it proclaimed preaching; after that 



followed prayers at the stand and a call for 
mourners, or, as it was more correctly and 
elegantly expressed, ' an invitation to such as 
desired an interest in the prayers of those pre- 
sent, from a conviction that they were sin- 
ners.' Then came a recess for the mid-day 
meal, and after this there was preaching 
again at 2 P. M. There were prayers at the 
stand and mourners called forward again, 
after which there was usually an adjournment 
to the open part of the ground, and a grand 
prayer-meeting organized in ' the ring.' The 
ring-meeting was formed in this way : If there 
were many inourners at the altar, as it was 
called — that is, two or three designated benches 
in front of the pulpit — some in authority would 
order a removal, on which some active fellow 
would shoulder a few benches and carry them 
to the square, and have them placed in a con- 
venient manner and ready for the mourners to 
kneel by or sit upon. Before these were re- 
moved, but in an incredible short time, enough 
stout young men would join hands around 
the benches to form a compact enclosure. 
These again were enclosed by an outer ring 
of those who were the first to spring to the 
place, that they might have a full view of the 
proceedings ; for it was understood that this 
circle was not to be entered except by the 
mourners and those who were to talk and 
pray with them. The young people of the 
country were generally good singers, and knew 
the hymns and tunes mostly in use, and the 
numbers who would join in the singing would 
now be surprising. Two resolute ones of the 
living wall of this ring would be designated 
as at once door-posts and door-keepers, who 
at their discretion, admitted persons within 
the enclosure. The mourners were then 
brought on, and entering, kneeled at the 
benches, while a brother of leading voice 
would start, ' Come, ye sinners, poor and 
needy,' or some similar hymn, in which every 
available voice would join, not a brick of the 
wall of this tabernacle keeping silence. Then 
followed a prayer, then a hymn, and then a 
prayer, and at last a steady stream of song 
and supplication, running together like the 
parts of a fttgue, harmonizing in sjiite of all 
discord." 

In the year 1856, Gas was first in- 
troduced into Chester for lighting pur- 
poses, and is now in common use. In 



41cS 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



1858-59, about 1,483,000 cuh'w feet 
of gas was manufactured, and suiJi)lied 
to 220 customers. The ofiftcers for 
that year were Frederick Fairlamb, 
President) John O. Deshong, Samuel 
A. Crozer, John H. Barton, and Rob- 
ert Button, Managers. The City Gas 
Works are situated on the east side of 
Welsh street, south of Third street. 

From a work entitled ' ' Historic 
Tales of Olden Times, ^^ by J. T. Wat- 
son, Philadelphia, 1833, I extract the 
following : 

" There was many years ago, considerable 
indications and promise of a valuable copper 
mine up ihe Chester Creek. There is still 
visible remains of two shafts now filled with 
water. They were said to contain about fifty 
pounds of copper, and about fifty ounces of 
silver in the one hundred pounds. At some 
future day they will probably be worked with 
more success and profit." 

In Hazard' s Register, for May, 1832, 
9 vol. 334, is the following article in 
which this old mine is referred to. 

"A Day in Chester. — We ventured to re- 
commend the village of Chester to our read- 
ers a few weeks ago, since which we have 
again passed a day very pleasantly in the 
neighborhood. Leaving the city at seven in 
the morning, you land at the pier at Chester 
in less than two hours after breakfast on board 
the floating palace William Penn. Besides 
the charm of cultivated society to be met with 
in the village, the ground is rendered doubly 
interesting by the historical associations which 
connect themselves with it. 

At the distance of about a mile above Ches- 
ter, immediately upon the banks of the creek, 
are extensive quarries where large tpiantities 
of stone are procured and sent down the 
river in boats. Here they are shipped in 
larger vessels and conveyed principally to the 
Breakwater, now constructing near the en- 
trance of the Delaware Bay. The stone is 
obtained in large irregular masses, and is a 
rough granite, consisting of an aggregation of 
quartz, feldspar and hornblende, irregularly 
combined. We observed traversing the quar- 
ries an occasional vein of suiphuret of iron or 



pyrites, of a fine gf)]d lustre, l)ut imperfect in 
its crystalization, and some tolerably good 
specimens of tourmalin, though the crystals 
are not large. A fine lamellated feldspar of 
a pale red color is abundant, and in .some 
places it is found of a green tinge. At this 
place we meet Mr. Walter C. Lyttle, the son 
of the proprietor of the quarries, to whose 
polite attention we are indebted for much of 
the satisfaction resulting from our excursion. 
I>eaving the quarries, he conducted us by a 
wild romantic path about half a mile further 
up the creek, where near an old deserted saw 
mill, we found the traces of an ancient mine. 
Two shafts appear to be sunk here which are 
yet visible, but filled with water and over- 
grown with bushes and vines. A consitkia- 
ble quantity of the rubbish drawn from the 
mine is yet laying about the place, from an 
examination of which it is apparent that the 
shafts were sunk chiefly through a clear white 
quartz containing veins of copper and mo- 
lybdena. The ore of the copper which we 
observed here in the greatest quantity is the 
yellow ferruginous suiphuret, though the green 
carbonate and several other varieties may also 
be found. The suiphuret of molybdena is 
abundant, and so nearly resembles graphite or 
plumbago, (vulgarly called black lead,) as not 
to be easily distinguished from it by mere ex- 
ternal characteristics. The two minerals, are, 
however, essentially distinct in chemical com- 
position, the plumbago being a carburet of- 
iron ; i. e. iron combined with a large propor- 
tion of carbon, while the other is a metal called 
molybdena combined with sulphur. It is a 
rare metal, and we are not aware that it has 
been applied to any use. Those persons who 
may desire specimens to add to their cabinet 
collection of minerals, may obtain them witli- 
out difficulty at this place. 

We were informed by Mr. Edward Jack- 
son, an intelligent old gentleman \vht)m we 
met at the mine, that about thirty years ago, 
three assays were made of the copper ore ob- 
tained here, the average result of which was 
53 per cent, of copper, with 48 ounces of silver 
in every one hundred pounds, and as he says, 
one grain of gold in every ounce of the ore. 
Before any great depth had been obtained, 
the progress of the work was suspended owing 
to the want of funds, and it ever since has 
been neglected. But from the awakened at- 
tention manifested at present to the mineral 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



419 



treasures of our country, we venture to pre- 
dict that the work at this place will be re- 
sumed at no very distant day. The strong 
probabilities of obtaining large quantities of 
rich ore by sinking the shaft to a greater depth, 
may induce some of our enterprising capitalists 
to make an attempt to render this mine pro- 
ductive." 

Mr. Watson was a frequent visitor 
to Chester, and admired its home-like 
scenes and old-fashioned hospitalities. 
Much of the information concerning 
the place and its vicinity contained in 
his well-known Annals, were obtained 
from the late Richard Flower, of La- 
mokin, whose guest he generally was 
while in the neighborhood. Mr. 
Flower was, in his younger days, a 
very handsome man, so some of the 
old ladies of niy family tell me, of fine 
conversational powers, and having 
antiquarian tastes, he was frequently 
applied to for information about things 
and times that were olden. 

Mr. Watson, in his work above 
referred to, page 20, writing of the 
early days of the English settlement, 
says : "In those times the Indians and 
Swedes were kind and active to bring 
in and vend at moderate prices, pro- 
per articles of subsistence. Provisions 
(says Penn) were good, and in vast 
quantities. Wild fowls were in abun- 
dance, and wild pigeons, .says another, 
were like clouds, and often flew so low 
as to be knocked down with sticks. 
Wild turkeys were sometinies so im- 
moderately fat and large as to weigh 
forty-six pounds; some of thirty pounds 
sold for one shilling; deer at two shil- 
lings apiece. The waters abounded 
with fish ; six alloes, or rock, were 
sold for one shilling, and salt fish at 
three farthings a pound. Oysters were 
abundant and excellent, six inches 
long. Peaches could be had by the 

'cart load." 
54 



XLV. 

THE OYSTER SUPPER. 

By William Martin, Jr. 

" Gently stir and rake the fire, 
Put the oysters on to roast, 
' Duck Creek planted,' I desire. 

They 're the kind that please me most. 
As the odor strikes my nose. 

My appetite much keener grows. 

On the plate now see them lie. 

In the gravy plump and fat. 
Finer ' fish' ne'er met my eye, 

Nor ' An opening rich as that ;' 
Let me season to the taste, 

With pepper, salt, etc., — haste. 

The cloth upon the table spread, 
Now" knife and fork as ciuickly get, 

With butter fresh and toasted bread 
ril have a feast unheard of yet, 

While po/uj brandy and segars 
W' ill set me up beyond the stars." 

In Proiicf s Pennsylvania, vol. i, 
p. 153, will be found copied, a letter 
from Mahlon Stacey to a friend in 
England, from which I make some ex- 
tracts, and which in view of the high 
prices of provisions, and the scarcity of 
game at the present day, (Dec. 20, 
1 87 1,) will be found quite refreshing, 
when considered in connection with 
the prices just above given by Watson. 
I priced to-day, butter, 75c. ; beef, 
roasting pieces, 23c. ; turkey and 
chickens, 23c.; mutton i8c. ; each 
per pound. Canvas-back ducks, $3.50 
per pair; red heads, $1.75 per pair ; 
partridges, $3 per dozen. The date 
of Mr. Stacey's letter is 1680. He 
says : "I have seen orchards laden 
with fruit to admiration ; their very 
limbs torn to pieces with the weight, 
and most delicious to the taste and 
lovely to behold. I have seen an apple 
tree from a pippin kind, yield a barrel 
of curious cyder, and peaches in such 
plenty, that some people took their 



420 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



carts a peach-gathering. I could not 
but smile at the conceit of it. They 
are a very delicate fruit, and hang al- 
most like our onions that are tied on 
ropes. I have seen and known this 
summer forty bushels of wild wheat 
of one bushel sown ; and many more 
such instances T could bring, which 
would be tedious here to mention. 
We have, from the time called May 
until Michaelmas, a good store of 
very good wild fruits — as strawberries, 
cranberries and huckleberries, which 
are like our bilberries in England, but 
far sweeter. They are very wholesome 
fruit. The cranberries are much like 
cherries, for color and bigness, which 
may be kept till fruit comes again; 
and an excellent sauce is made of them 
for venison, turkeys and other great 
fowl. They are better to make tarts 
than either gooseberries or cherries. 
We have them brought to our houses 
by the Indians, in great plenty. My 
brother Robert had as many cherries 
this year as would have loaded many 
carts. It is my judgment by what I 
have observed, that fruit trees in this 
country destroy themselves by the very 
weight of their fruit. 

As for venison and fowl, we have 
great plenty. We have brought home 
to our houses by the Indians, seven or 
eight fat bucks in a day, and some- 
times put by as many, having no occa- 
sion for them ; and fish in their sea- 
son very plentiful. * * * And as 
to beef and pork, here is great plenty 
of it and cheap, and also good sheep. 
The common grass of this country 
feeds very fat. * * * We have a 
great plenty of most sorts of fish that 
I ever saw in England, besides several 
other sorts that are not known there, 
as rock, catfish, shad, sheep-heads, 
sturgeons; and fowls in plenty, as 



ducks, geese, turkeys, pheasants, par- 
tridges and many other sorts. * * * 
Indeed, the country, take it as a wil- 
derness, is a brave country." 

Richard Townsend, writing about 
the same time, 1682, states {Proud, 
I vol., 229) : "After some time I set 
up a mill at Chester Creek, which I 
brought ready framed from London, 
which served for grinding corn and 
sawing of boards, and was of great use 
to us. Besides I, with Joshua Tittery, 
made a net and caught great quanti- 
ties of fish, which supplied ourselves 
and many others; so that, notwith- 
standing, it was thought near 3000 
persons came in the first year, we 
were so providentially provided for, 
that we could buy a deer for about two 
shillings, and a large turkey for about 
one shilling, and Indian corn for about 
two shillings and six pence per bushel." 

Chester for many years has been a 
profitable market for fish. In the 
spring of the year the shad and herring 
fisheries yield their annual tribute, and 
the fish are brought up Chester Creek 
in boats, to supply the town and sur- 
rounding country. In 1683, it is 
stated that they were "exceedingly 
plentiful/' and the early fishermen 
could take 600 at a draught. They 
were proportionately cheap. Six rock- 
fish could be bought for a shilling ; 
six shad for the same ; and oysters for 
two shillings a bushels. Hazard'' s 
Register iox April 12, 1825, i vol., 
240, says : " Shad— the average num- 
ber caught last week at Marcus Hook, 
amounts to 2000 a day." 

At the "Fish House," at Glouces- 
ter Point, New Jersey, on or about 
May 13, 1873, there was taken at one 
haul of the net, over 60,000 herring, 
the greatest draught of fish ever had 
in the river Delaware. A day or so 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



421 



previously there was caught, at the 
same fishing grounds, 1,200 shad at 
one haul. The herring sold at 15 
cents per hundred. I forgot to ask 
the price of the shad by the hundred, 
but they retailed in Philadelphia at 
50 cents each. 

The arrival of shad and the com- 
mencement of fishing in our local 
waters, render their nature and habits 
a subject of interest. The shad, Thad- 
deus Norris says, belongs to the her- 
ring family. Its geographical range, 
on the Atlantic coast, is from Florida 
to the Bay of Fundy. The shad al- 
ways returns to its native river to re- 
produce its kind. Those hatched in 
the Delaware never enter the mouths 
of the Hudson or Potomac. Each 
river has its own peculiar race of shad, 
those of the Delaware bdng of larger 
size than the general average. It is 
believed that the shad does not wander 
very far into the ocean. Their ascent 
to the spawning grounds, in the spring, 
is slow and gradual. If there is a 
freshet, or they encounter a taint of 
snow water, they remain stationary. 
They enter the fresh running water 
very tardily. They cannot ascend 
strong rapids or falls, like the salmon, 
and are sometimes checked or scared 
by seeing the shadow of a bridge across 
the water. They do not feed while in 
the fresh water, and no food is found 
in their stomachs after they have en- 
tered. The roe of a good sized shad 
contains about 100,000 eggs, and will 
weigh 12 ounces. If these were all 
hatched and reared, they would weigh 
200 tons. But this immense fecundity 
is necessary to meet the many dangers 
that surround the fish. Myriads of 
eggs are at once destroyed or washed 
away, while the young fry are devoured 
as they emerge by the wholesale by 



catfish, chubs, sunfish and minnows. 
Thirty young shad have been taken 
from the stomach of a roach four. in- 
ches long. Seth Green says, that only 
three eggs out of a hundred spawned 
in the Connecticut river are hatched. 
In spawning, the shad seeks a brisk 
current or gently whirling eddy, and 
the eggs are deposited generally at 
night. They are at once fertilized by 
her male companion, who moves by 
her side during the operation. An 
experienced observer says, that the 
actual results obtained by artificial cul- 
ture of shad are as 2000 to i as com- 
pared with those of nature. This fact 
illustrates the great importance of the 
steps recently taken by the State gov- 
ernments for the protection and pro- 
pagation of shad in the rivers along 
the Atlantic coast. 

It has been frequently remarked by 
many experienced fishermen, that the 
Delaware shad are gradually decreas- 
ing in size, and that they are not near 
so large as they were a few years ago. 
The shad fisheries of the Delaware are 
quite an extensive branch of busi- 
ness, and give employment to a large 
number of men. During the season, 
which extends from the ist of April 
to the ist of June, over two million of 
fish are usually caught. The fishing 
begins below Marcus Hook" and ex- 

"-The Sunday Dispatch of M;ir. iS, 1S77, 
states that " A week or so ago Salem County 
(New Jersey) tishermen scooped up a shad now 
and then in their nets down in Delaware Bay, 
and their brothers (of the fishermen, not of the 
shad) further up the river began to drop their 
drift-nets with the hope of depleting the schools 
on their way up the Delaware; but a heavy 
freshet (jccurred away up toward the headwaters 
of the noble river, and the rise loosened up a 
large quantity of reserve ice spread along the 
shores of the tributary streams, which came 
drifting down, and meeting the shad in their 
upward course, the piscine luxuries incontinent- 
ly turned tail and retreated to the deep waters 
of the bav, where they will stay until old Sol 



422 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



tends to Trenton, Shore nets are gene- 
rally used by the Delaware fishermen, 
although drift net fishing is quite com- 
mon. On the Hudson drift and stake 
nets only are used, owing to the high 
shores of that river. The shore net is 
about one hundred and fifty fathoms 
in length, and requires fifteen or twenty 
men to handle it, who are paid at the 
rate of ^lo to $15 a week. 

In January, shad begin to run up the 
rivers to spawn, as far south as Charles- 
ton. Thence gradually they work 
northward. They reach Norfolk in 
February, the Delaware about the mid- 
dle of March, New York about the ist 
of April, Boston the last of April, and 
the Bay of Fundy by the middle of 
May. The time of the appearance of 
shad depends a great deal upon the 
weather. Old fishermen predict that 
if light winds and sunshine prevail the 
supply will be large. Shad seldom 
sell at retail on the Delaware for more 
than 75 cents, even at the beginning 
of the season. Southern shad are sell- 1 
ing now, March 16, 1877, in Phila- 
delphia, at retail for 75 cents. The 
first shad caught this season, was taken 
near Marcus Hook, in a gill-net owned 
by John Morris, on March 6, and 
weighed 3)^ pounds. 

In 1835, we used to get fine large 
shad for 12^ cents a piece, herring 
were $2 a hundred, shad from ^9 to ^12 
per hundred. I remember going with 
my step-grandfather, John F. Hill, to 
Effinger's fishery, at the mouth of Rid- 
ley Creek, to buy shad and herring to 
salt down for winter use. 



warms up the water to a temjierature agreeable 
to their sensitive bodies. A week of warm 
sunshine will fill the river with shad. In this 
connection it may be stated that within a week 
other fish have been caught in nets in the lower 
part of the river so much affected by the cold- 
ness of the water as to be almost torpid." 



The fact that during the last twenty 
years shad have been rapidly disappear- 
ing from Northern waters, has led those 
interested in fish culture to pay much 
attention to their artificial breeding. 
The project has been very successful, 
and many of the States have enacted 
laws for the propagation and pro- 
tecting of several kinds of fish, and 
appointed Commissioners of Fish- 
eries, to see that the laws on the subject 
are fully carried out. The Commis- 
sioners of Fisheries for Pennsylvania, 
appointed by the Governor under the 
Act of April 28, 1873, ^re : — Howard 
J. Reeder, of Northampton, Benjamin 
H. Hewitt, of Blair, and James Duffy, 
of Lanca.ster County. 

The matter received early attention 
in Pennsylvania. By Act of 14th Mar. 
1784, Commissiofiers were appointed 
for making the Schuylkill navigable, 
and protecting the fish therein. And 
under the Act of March 31, 1785, 
(14 Col. Records, 484,) Commission- 
ers were appointed for improving the 
navigation of the Susquehanna and all 
its branches. In the list of Commis- 
sioners will be found the names of 
Thomas Turbutt and John Churchman, 
for Chester County. 

In this connection, the following 
article from the Republican of July 15, 
1870, will be interesting. Whether 
the present Club is a continuation of 
the one mentioned by John K. Zeilin, 
Esq. , as existing in Chester about 1 830, 
I do not know. 

" Chester Fishing Chih. — This Club cele- 
l)rated its thirtieth anniversary on Friday 
last, by a visit to its grounds in New Jersey. 
Twenty-four active members of the Club 
were in attendance, a portion of whom spent 
the day in fishing, and others in exercises and 
amusemonls as pleased their fancy. A bounti- 
ful lunch was set out during the day, and at 
four o'clock dinner was ainiounced. The 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



423 



taljle was graced by large quantities of well- 
cooked fish — perch, halibut, black-fish, cat- 
ties and eels being among the varieties. To 
this course was added all the vegetables of 
the season, and the sauces and condiments of 
this and other lands, were spread out in pro- 
fusion, to tempt the appetite and give zest to 
the occasion. Such a table as the caterers 
presented, is not often found at the best hotels 
in city or country. After the gastronomical 
exercises were over, the President gave notice 
that the time had arrived when the party 
should proceed to business. The annual elec- 
tion for officers of the Club for the ensuing 
year then took place, with the following re- 
sult: President, Y. S. Walter; Secretary, 
Col. William C. Gray ; Treasurer, Amos 
Gartside. A vote of thanks was proposed and 
unanimously given to R. W. Flickwir, the re- 
tiring President, for the manner in which he 
had discharged his duty, and the interest he 
had always exhibited in the welfare of the 
Club, during his continuance as its principal 
officer. Short speeches, full of wit and senti- 
ment, w-ere then indulged in by Dr. Ulrich, 
Forwood and Mackenzie, Mr. Bowen of New 
Jersey, H. B. Taylor and Y. S. Walter. The 
catering committee, to whose labors the Club 
owed much for the capital dinner which they 
provided, were not forgotten ; the thanks of 
all present were given to them for the ad- 
mirable manner in which they had performed 
their duty. At a seasonable hour the mem- 
bers entered their boats, and with a fine sail- 
ing breeze they soon reached their homes, 
gratified with the manner in which the day 
was spent, and refreshed and invigorated with 
the exercises in which they had participated." 

A new source of industry has lately 
(1873) been started in the vicinity of 
Chester, the catching of sturgeons. As 
far as I can learn, the first effort in 
this enterprise was made by Henry 
Schacht, who some time ago, with 
scant means and but one boat, lo- 
cated himself on Ridley Creek, from 
which place he removed to Chester 
Creek, and afterwards, with wise fore- 
thought, when more prosperous, pur- 
chased Monas Island, opposite Ches- 
ter ; there, by means of piles, &c., he 



erected a pen in which to retain the 
fish alive for the most profitable mar- 
ket. Mr. Schacht was drowned on a 
dark and dismal night last spring, and 
a relative, Henry Henry, succeeded to 
the business, which had greatly in- 
creased. 

At the foot of Edgmont Street is 
moored a large scow, well arranged 
for the comfort of those employed. 
There are bunks for their sleeping ar- 
rangements, and a cook to provide 
their meals. Here the fish are brought, 
the meat sent to New York, where it 
commands a ready sale at about seven 
cents per pound, and is known as 
"Albany beef," the head, skin and 
back-bone being rendered into oil, 
passing through a boiling process. Of 
this, on an average, six barrels per 
week are produced during the season, 
netting 60 cents per gallon. Of the 
roes, caviare is made. It is prepared 
in this way : The roes are taken from 
the dead fish and run through several 
sieves of graduated fineness, and then 
treated with the finest of German salt, 
an indispensable article in its prepara- 
tion ; it is then packed in oaken kegs 
and placed in a cool position until the 
season of shipment — the fall — when it 
is transported to Germany, where it 
commands, on an average, one dollar 
per pound. 

Mr. Henry has six boats engaged, 
which are substantially built, averag- 
ing 25 feet in length. They are, in 
regular parlance, "cat-rigged." The 
fishermen are paid $1.75 apiece for 
the sturgeons they capture; they some- 
times realize from ^20 to $30 per day. 

The sturgeons are taken in long drift 
nets, made of heavy twine, and man- 
aged usually by two persons to a boat. 
These fish weigh from 50 to 100 lbs. 
each. The flesh which is shipped to 



424 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



New York daily, is packed in ice, and 
is served at some of the hotels in that 
city, in the form of steaks. Large 
quantities of it is smoked, and in some 
cases is sold as smoked salmon. The 
roe or eggs, after having been sent to 
Germany and converted into caviare, 
is often re-shipped to this country and 
is consumed, generally by our German 
population. 

In the early days of the settlements 
on the Delaware, it is said swans abound- 
ed. That wild water-fowl is now very 
seldom seen or shot in these waters, 
although I have seen some. At page 
54 of the Directory, after referring to 
the wild game in old times, it is stated : 
^' We do not hear of the more modern 
rail and reed-birds which now afford 
profit and pleasure to the sportsman 
in the fall season. These birds come 
in the early part of autumn, in large 
numbers, to feed upon the seeds of the 
thickly growing reeds of the low shore 
and half formed islands of the Dela- 
ware. The seed in its milky state is 
very nutritive, and the birds fatten 
upon it in a few days, affording a 
highly palatable food." 

The following I copied from some, 
now forgotten, source : 

" Among sportsmen, the Delaware 
River has become renowned as being 
the best ground for rail shooting. From 
Bordentown southward to Port Penn, 
the shores are overgrown at intervals 
with a dense growth of reeds or wild 
oats, Lizani Clavulosa, the favorite 
food of this bird, countless numbers 
of which take jKJSsession of the flats 
and bars, early in August, long before 
the seed ripens. 

Sept. ist, ushers in rail shooting, and 
there are few sportsmen in Philadelphia 
and its surrounding towns that do not 
enter into the sport with more or less 



zest. By far the most numerous spe- 
cies oi rallidce or rail, frequenting the 
Delaware, is the sora, Raliiis Caro- 
iiftus. The Virginia or red rail, Rallus 
Virginianus, is by no means rare, and 
can be seen in every bag oi soras ; the 
great or king rail, Rallus elgans, is 
occasionally shot, and always consid- 
ered a prize when secured ; they are 
comparatively scarce, however. 

The salt water mud hen, Rallus 
crepitajis, is often boated farther down 
the river, nearer the bay, and seldom 
wanders to the regions of fresh water. 
One was killed a year or two since on 
Chester Island, in the Delaware, and 
numbers have been shot near Wilming- 
ton. Of the other branch of the rail 
family, the common coot or hen bill, 
Tulica nigra, is often met with, and 
the common gallinule, Galli?rula ga- 
leata, has been shot as far north as 
Pennsylvania, and it is on record that 
in 1848, the purple gallinule, Galli- 
nula marlinica, was killed on League 
Island, at the mouth of the Schuylkill, 
by Mr. John Krider, of Philadelphia. 

The favorite points from which the 
sportsman sallies forth in quest of the 
rail are Bridgeport, Port Penn, Mar- 
cus Hook, Chester and the Lazaretto, 
and at all these places, pushers or pole- 
men can be secured at a price ranging 
from three to five dollars a tide, and 
ascore of boats start from these stations 
during the season. Thirty or fort;' 
rail to a boat is considered an average 
bag, but seventy-five to one hundred 
are often boated ; and last September, 
at Port Penn, during a heavy tide, Mr. 
Kerlin, of Chester, shot two hundred 
and twenty-six, the largest number ever 
known to have been bagged by a single 
sportsman in a day. 

The boats used by the rail-shooters 
are of a l)uil(l i)eculiar to the Dela- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



425 



ware, and are made very light, and 
often weigh but 60 or 70 pounds ; 
they are modeled sharp at both bow 
and stern, 'clinker built,' and are 
partly decked over at the end where 
the pusher stands while propelling the 
skiff through the reeds. In front of 
the shooter a square receptacle is con- 
structed where he can lay his amuni- 
tion box or cartridges, and reach them 
readily for rapid loading and firing. 

By the 20th of October, at which 
time we generally have a sharp frost, 
the rail all move southward, and the 
shooting ceases. 

Myriads of reed-birds claim the same 
feeding grounds during September, 
but while in pursuit of rail, they are 
seldom disturbed, for each boat is 
striving to bag the greatest number of 
rail, to be displayed on the return, 
and a grjsat honor is attached to the 
'high boat.' 

Mallard, summer duck, green and 
blue winged teal, are often met with 
in the reeds, and it is advisable always 
to be provided with some cartridges 
loaded with larger shot than No. 10. 

About the ist of April, the gunning 
season ends along our bay and the 
Chesapeake. Sportsmen then stow 
away their apparatus. Canvas-back, 
red-head and bald-pate ducks take 
their departure from the tributaries of 
the Delaware Bay." 

An article in the FhiladelpJiia In- 
quirer of April 16, 1873, 01"^ t^^^ 
subject says: "On Thursday and Fri- 
day of last week, (and now only a 
few black-heads and coots remain,) 
the air was filled with an immense 
number of ducks, geese and swans, 
winging their way to their breeding 
places, where they will remain until 
October next, when they will return 
to their old feeding grounds in the 



waters of Maryland." The same pa- 
perunderdate of April 8, 1874, states: 
" The season for wild goose shooting 
on Long Island has commenced. As 
the birds are very shy, it requires a 
good deal of skill on the part of the 
sportsman to come near enough for a 
shot. The method generally employ- 
ed is to obtain from 15 to 25 wild 
geese, by 'winging' them, on their 
passage north or south — the old-fash- 
ioned wooden 'stoolers' being re- 
garded as entirely behind the age. 
These are tamed so that they can be 
'lined' to stakes, when they are taken 
to the bars where the wild geese usu- 
ally stop to feed, and fastened to stakes 
put down in the sand out of sight, 
while the gunner conceals himself in 
a box sunk in the sand, and partially 
covered by sea-weed or meadow-grass. 
When flocks of wild geese are passing, 
these partially tamed ones will call 
them, and usually they will fly near by 
or light, when the gunner rises and 
shoots. Experts have killed as many 
as 25 at a shot. The flocks of tamed 
geese are regarded as very valuable." 
On Sunday, Jan. 7, 1866, a cold 
spell of weather set in, and by Mon- 
day morning the thermometer had 
fallen to 10 degrees below zero ; for 
thirty years nothing approaching this 
degree of cold had been felt at Ches- 
ter, and the day is yet referred to as 
" the cold Monday." The winter of 
1874, was very cold; on Feb. loth, 
the river was frozen solid, and people 
crossed to the bar ; on the 9th, the 
thermometer was 2 degrees below zero. 
In the interior of the State, the con- 
tinued cold froze the smaller streams 
solid, depriving the cattle of water. 

The winter of 1872-73, which was 
cold, as that of 1873-74 was mild, ex- 
cited a great deal of comment ; and 



420 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



M-hile every one was speaking of the 
season as being remarkable in its char- 
acteristics, I gathered some reliable 
facts concerning the year 1816, which 
was known as "the year without a 
summer." Few persons now living 
can recollect it ; but it was said to have 
been the coldest summer ever known in 
Europe or America. The winter was 
mild. Frost and ice were common in 
every month of the year. Very little 
vegetation matured in the Eastern and 
Middle States. The sun's rays seemed 
to be destitute of heat through the sum- 
mer ; all nature seemed to be clad in a 
sable hue, and men exhibited no little 
anxiety concerning the future of this life. 
Mrs. Acelie T. Whelen, (now de- 
ceased, wife of Edward S. W., Jr.,) an 
accomplished scholar and a graceful 
writer, daughter of the late Dr. Joseph 
and Rosalie Acelie Togno, and niece 
of one of the most charming of my 
former young lady friends, of Phila- 
delphia, Lizzie Guillou, who became 
the wife of John Thibault, and died-in 
Texas — was kind enough to write for 
me in 1874, a description of the then 
fashion of dress, for gentlemen and 
ladies, both in full dress and in prom- 
enade costume ; in the words following : 

In full dress there is no apparent difference 
in the " ijet up" of the fashionable diner- jut, 
and the man behind liis chair. Both are 
habited in swallow-tailed coat, pants and vest 
of sombre black broad-cloth ; both wear the 
same style of white muslin neck-tie, not an 
inch wide ; only by the exquisite quality of his 
gloves and lingerie, and by the cut of his 
clothes, can the man of fashion hope to be 
distinguished uutwardly, from a buller dc boinic 
maison. Recently an effort has been made to 
introduce the English style of light pants, and 
walking coats for ceremonious visits and small 
social entertainments ; but the innovation met 
with no favor, the pure bred American cling- 
ing fondly to his funereal " claw hammer" 
coat. 



I have often been asked why men's coats 
have two buttons on the back at the waist, and 
no one seems to know the very evident reason 
they were placed in such a position of seem- 
ing uselessness. Well, they were originally 
put there to prevent the sword from slipping 
down on the waist, and looking unseemly and 
ungraceful ; for when the present style of coats 
came into fashion, every gentleman when in 
full dress, wore a dress sword, and as a na- 
tural consequence duelling became fashion- 
able. Men's hats are generally the stiff, high 
stove-pipe shape, of silk. A fine opera hat is 
made in the same shape, but of a fine twilled 
silk cashmere. The frame is made of springs, 
so that it can be closed and lie flat, to carry 
either in the hand or the pocket. Those who 
desire comfort, wear the soft felt hat which 
was made fashionable by Kossuth when he 
visited this country. This style of hat was in- 
troduced into the United States immediately 
after the Mexican war, in this way: During 
the war, a gray felt hat with a very broad brim, 
something in the shape of the present uniform 
felt hat of the army, was made a part of the 
uniform of the "Army of Invasion." The 
one worn by General Taylor, is now in the 
fire-proof of the Historical Society of Penn- 
sylvania. On the return of the troops to the 
United States, this kind of hat became fash- 
ionable. Kossuth on his visit wore a low- 
crowned black felt, with a black plume. The 
hat became the rage without the plume, and 
is the most comfortable part of a man's dress. 
Half boots are worn by the majority of men, 
but gentlemen usually prefer the high boots, 
and in summer or for full dress occasions, pumps 
and silk stockings. The every day dress of 
an American citizen is generally a loose sack 
coat, vest and pants, of invisible blue, or 
tweeds, or mixed cloth. 

Of the dress of the period for women, it 
may be said : This is eminently an age of re- 
vivals. The greatest possible latitude being 
conceded individual fancy and caprice. The 
toilets of this year (1874) have much charac- 
ter. Fashion has been ingenious enough to 
borrow all that is most effective from each 
epoch, in order to build up a costume of the 
period. Among the most prominent revivals 
we observe the rather stiff, severe splendor ot 
the Medician period; the mediseval garb of 
the hapless Marguerite ; the coquettish fash- 
ions of the reigns of Louis XV. and Louis 



IIISTOUV OF CllESTKK. 



427 



W'l., aiul tlie \ery trying modes peculiar to 
the Ijcauties of the Directory and the First 
Empire. 

As we write presumably for posterity, how- 
ever, we will deal only with the average wo- 
man of the period, who, while she cannot 
afford the extravagant inventions of Worth and 
his peers, still manages, aided by taste and an 
innate artistic sense, to be becomingly and 
effectively dressed. Black, and myriad shades 
of grays, browns, invisible blues and greens, 
are preferred for street suits in winter. Vel- 
vet, silk, camel's hair, poplin, cashmere, or 
merino, may be worn. P\)r women of ex- 
tremely moderate means, there are many pretty 
and inexpensive mixed fabrics. 

In summer there is a great variety of gren- 
adines, from the fine hernani, or gaze de cham- 
ber!, to the coarse canvas barege. A black 
suit is considered stylish, but those who like 
to look cool, prefer the ecni, linens, flax, ba- 
reges, and the soft, creamy India silks. In 
frosty weather, a sacque, cap, and muff of seal 
skin, over the ordinary street dress, is as be- 
coming as it is handsome. Many superb India 
shawls are imported, but are left chiefly to 
dowagers, from the fashion to display rather 
than conceal all the outlines of the figure. 
For ordinary wear, the redingote and polo- 
naise are most popular. The redingote, if of 
soft, cheap material, or of thin goods, is often 
made loose, belted in to the form, and with 
little trimming save large buttons and a roll- 
ing collar and deep cuffs, and pockets of some 
darker or contrasting color in silk or velvet. 
The usual style, are in preference, fittecl tightly, 
and buttoned the entire length of the front 
which sets flat and close to the figure. The 
entire fulness of the garment is placed in the 
back breadths, which are very long and ample, 
to admit of graceful looping. The redingote 
is drawn high on each side, falling long in 
front, while the back is looped up slightly so 
as to form full and graceful drapery. 

The same description may serve for the 
polonaise, which is, however, more ornate 
generally, and admits of rich and more elab- 
orate trimmings. Both redingote and polo- 
naise are usually finished at the throat by 
either a high quilted ruff, or else a flat rolling 
collar with reverse and deep cufis upon the 
sleeves. The skirts worn in the street with 
these over-dresses, are rather short, just touch- 
ing the ground and very scant, covered either 



with ruffles, flounces, ur tieep kilted plaiting. 
Boots, kid, or lasting faced with kid, buttoned 
and made rather high, to cover and support 
the ankle. Gloves, which are of smooth or 
undressed kid, must invariably match the cos- 
tume perfectly. The aumoniere is a strik- 
ing feature of some handsome street suits. It 
is a small bag of Russia leather, velvet, silk, 
or satin, richly embroidered in gold, silver, 
jet or floss, often with a monogram. It is 
suspended from the waist by straps of ribbon 
or velvet. In summer, a long chain is often 
worn at the waistband, on which hangs a fan, 
a vinaigrette, or purse, and often a variety of 
pretty and useful trifles. In rainy or threatening 
weather a small silk umbrella is hooked l)y a 
chain to the belt and hangs on the right side. 
Veils are of Ijlack lace, plain or dotted with 
jet, only large enough to cover the face like a 
mask. 

It is hardly possible to fix the epoch of hats; 
indeed it is hard for the uninitiated to distin- 
guish them from bonnets, as the latter are not 
worn with strings except by elderly ladies. 
Many are modeled on the Directoire, with a 
stiff diadem brim, while others are of the 
graceful Cavalier shape, and others again re- 
call the toque of the old Huguenots. The 
favorite shapes are the Directoire, garlanded 
with flowers, the Corday, with a high, soft 
crown of velvet or silk trimmed with the same 
materials and lace — one large rose placed co- 
quettishly on the left, resting on the hair. 
There is a very graceful Bolero hat made 
either of felt, straw or velvet, the rather wide 
brim, faced with velvet, and turned up on the 
left side by a handsome jet, silver or steel or- 
nament, which fastens a long ostrich feather. 
This encircles all the crown, droo])ing grace- 
fully behind. 

In the way of coiftures we have returned to 
the mode of half a century ago. The hair 
raised straight up from the roots and disposed 
in large finger pufts on top of the head, while 
the forehead is partially concealed by light 
frizzes, or ripling waves of hair. With this 
style of coiffure, one flower or a small tuft of 
feathers or a handsome jewelled aigrette, is an 
all-sufficient ornament. Silks have never 
been richer in texture or more varied and 
exquisite in hue. F"or evening dresses, we 
have greens, from the intense glaring arsen- 
ical dyes, to the dull yellowish Nile-water, or 
the soft sheen of sea water on soundings. 



428 



HISTORY OF CHESTEK. 



Tlioii the ricli gentian, and tlic pale silvery 
glacier blue. Exquisite jjinkish mauve like 
lilacs in spring, myriad shades of violet, deep- 
ening to imperial i)urple. Faint delicious 
blush rose, ranging over every variety of pink, 
to richest ghjwing crimson. Then the soft, 
rem colors, the chestnut and chocolate browns, 
the slate, and mignonette, and lichen greys." 

About 45 years ago, when fashion- 
able ladies in our larger cities wore very 
short dresses with pantalets, like coun- 
try girls of eight or ten years do now, a 
Chester lady attempted to introduce 
the fashion there, and while walking 
the streets thus attired, was mobbed 
by the school-boys, and had to be 
taken to Mrs. Preston Eyre's resi- 
dence, in the dwelling part of the 
Delaware County Bank building. 

XLVI. 

Some idea of the growth of Chester 
may be obtained from contrasting the 
number of the wholesale and retail 
dealers of foreign and domestic mer- 
chandise of 1853, with that of 1873. 
The number assessed for the payment 
of mercantile taxes in 1873, ^^^5 i^ 
Chester proper, 248; in South Ches- 
ter, 19. Total, 267. The list in 1853, 
contains only 46, as follows : 



D. R. Esrcy, 
Shoemaker & Brother, 
Thomas Liversidge, 
Edward Minshall, 
Broomall & Stevenson, 
Eliza Finch, 
jarman & Di.\on, 
William Lear, 
I^vi Kline, 
George Baker, 
Elijah S. Howes, 
James Fawley, 
Gibson & Gray, 
James G. Shaw, 
Charles McDevitt, 
Joseph Ladomus, 
Henry C. Price, 
Thomas T. Thurlow, 
Jacob Tuch, 
Joshua Beaumont, 
James Hampson, 
Samuel Ulrich, 
William Borden, 



H. J. Gibson, 
William Booth, 
Hinkson & Baker, 
R. R. Dutton, 
Lewis & Campbell, 
Thomas M. Smith, 
Jonathan Dutton, 
Joseph Entwisle, 
Dennis Clark, 
Samuel Starr, 
Kaufman & Goodman, 
Abraham Goldsmith, 
Johnson & Cochran, 
John IVI. Allen, 
Charles W. Raborg, 
L R. Gibbs, 
William B. Kerlin, 
William Reeves, 
William Vi. Schiireman 
John Goff, 
Stephen Cloud, 
Osgood R. Webster, 
Joseph McNamcc. 



During October, 1865, there appear- 
ed a couple of articles in The Press, 
of Philadelphia, entitled "The Rise 
AND Progress of Chester, her Ship- 
yards AND Machine Shops." These 
articles were reproduced in The Dela- 
ware County Republican, with edito- 
rial comments. These I give in .sub- 
stance, omitting some minor details. 
The first article says : 

"Among the many towns within 50 
miles of Philadelphia, there is no single 
one, probably, of which less is known 
than Chester. The old residents of 
our city remember it only as a small 
settlement, noted for its antiquity, and 
the excellent qualities of its people; 
and the citizens of later birth know it 
only as a station on the road to Wil- 
mington and Baltimore, where, as the 
train tarries for a moment, he sees a 
small crowd of sturdy-looking males 
and pretty featured lasses gazing at 
the passengers. To the visitor alone 
— he who spends a few hours in walk- 
ing through its ship and boat yards, 
its machine shops and factories, can 
Chester appear in that creditable as- 
pect which every thriving, flourishing 
town presents. 

Sixteen years have accomplished 
more for Chester than a previous cen- 
tury did. It was generally conceded 
in the year 1849, that Chester had 
attained that rank among towns which 
gave its citizens the right to believe 
that it was finished, and ready to be 
surrounded by a fence ; but in that 
year John Larkin, Jr., commenced to 
improve the north end of the Borough, 
and John M. Broomall and John P. 
Crozer, having purchased one or more 
farms at the lower end, had the land 
laid out into town lots, and offered li- 
beral inducements for persons to build. 
The poi)ulation then numbered only 



HISTORY OF CHESTEK. 



429 



700, and the l)uilt-up portion was con- 
fined to the space between the Phila- 
delphia, Wilmington and Baltimore 
Railroad and the Delaware River east 
of Chester Creek ; but so eagerly were 
the offers of the capitalists accepted, 
that in four years the town had ex- 
tended north and south, and 2,000 
persons claimed it as their home. 
Seven years later (i860) the popula- 
tion had increased to 6,000, and at 
the present time it is estimated at be- 
tween eight and nine thousand, with 
a lack of dwellings, which the erec- 
tion of three or four hundred cannot 
supply. 

Prior to i860, there were in Ches- 
ter eleven cotton and woolen mills, 
three shipyards and one machine shop, 
employing in all about seven or eight 
hundred hands. Now, there are six- 
teen mills, six shipyards and five ma- 
chine shops. In i860, the Messrs. 
Reaney, William Frick, and other 
wealthy and influential men, removed 
to Chester, and invested a large amount 
of money in land, which they imme- 
diately commenced to improve, and 
the results of which are now apparent, 
not only in the great number of build- 
ings which have been erected during 
the last five years, but in the vast in- 
crease in the value of the property, 
much of which could have been pur- 
chased, even two years ago, for $500 
an acre, but which cannot now be 
bought for six times that sum. In 
1863, Mr. Broomall, William Ward, 
Thomas Reany and others, purchased 
about $175,000 worth of land, and, 
under the title of the Lamokin Im- 
provement Company, built and sold 
to their present occupants a number 
of comfortable dwellings. Other pur- 
chasers soon perceived the advantages 
of Chester, and among them may be 



noted : The Chester Manufacturing 
Company, builders of locomotives and 
cars ; Messrs. Williamson and Wilson, 
wholesale iron, coal and lumber deal- 
ers ; Stevenson, the ship-builder ; and 
Green, whose brass foundry looms up 
in the distance, half a mile below the 
borough line. The Lamokin Improve- 
ment Co., have recently presented five 
acres of land to the Philadelphia, Wil- 
mington and Baltimore Railroad Co., 
on which is to be erected a passenger 
and freight depot and a large hotel. 

A short distance below the mouth 
of Chester Creek is located the canal- 
boat and coal-boat establishment of 
William Frick & Co., late of the firm 
of Frick, Slifer & Co., of Lewisburg, 
in this State. Coming to this section 
in the spring of i860, they located on 
the southern outskirts of Chester, and 
by the proper application of labor and 
means, soon converted nine or ten 
acres of pasture land into a flourishing 
business site. Piers were erected run- 
ning some seven hundred feet into the 
Delaware River; thousands of dollars 
wefe expended in filling up low and 
marshy ground ; and all the buildings 
and machinery necessary to carry on 
theif works were erected. , Although 
theif specialties are the building of 
canal boats and coal cars, there are fa- 
cilities in the yard for the building of 
any and every kind of craft, from a 
small row-boat to a ship of three thou- 
sand tons. 

The lumber that is used — and Mr. 
Frick informs Us that they consume as 
much or more than any ship-yard in 
the countr)', and more than any twen- 
ty boat-yards in the State — is brought 
down from the upper Susquehanna, 
and sawed at the yard into the various 
straight and crooked forms which are 
to fit it for the interior and exterior of 



430 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



boats and cars. The boats arc of four 
or five different patterns, framed to suit 
the width and depth of the canals. We 
noticed them in all stages of building, 
some with the keel only laid, others 
ready for planking, and others again 
receiving the last touches from the 
painter's brush ; but all exhibiting that 
outward appearance of strength and 
durability which always pleases a coal 
company. Those intended for the 
Morris Canal, of New Jersey, carry 
about seventy tons; those of Lehigh, 
eighty or ninety tons; those of the 
Pennsylvania Coal Company, opera- 
ting on the Delaware and Hudson Ca- 
nal, one hundred and twenty tons, and 
those for the Schuylkill navigation as 
high as from one hundred and eighty 
to two hundred tons. About one hun- 
dred and fifty hands are employed by 
Messrs. Frick & Co., and if necessary, 
one boat a day can be turned out. 
Everything is done at this establish- 
ment by contract. The moulding of 
the boat frame is accomplished by the 
"gang" employed by one contractor. 
The frame is run through the jig-saw 
by another gang; a third puts it to- 
gether, and places it on the keel; a 
fourth planks it to the bilge; a fifth 
planks the bilge and bottom ; a sixth at- 
tends to the clamps, kelsons, knees, 
ceiling and other inside work ; a seventh 
puts on the deck ; an eighth makes the 
cabin and hatches; the caulkers then 
attend to their duties; the painters fol- 
low, and when ready for the water, 
another gang attends to the launching. 
In the making of cars the same sys- 
tem is adopted, and while one i)arty 
frames them another sets them up, an- 
other does the painting, and a fourth 
has charge of all the forging. About 
$ 1 75 ,000 have been invested by Messrs. 
Frick i\: Co.. and not less than half a 



million a year is the value of the busi- 
ness at this one yard. The saw mill 
has a capacity of about five million feet 
a year. 

Below this yard, Wilson & Morris 
have nine acres enclosed, and prosecute 
the boat and car business, but on a 
more extensive scale than at the upper 
establishment. Although they only 
l)roke ground last May, and have not 
yet completed their buildings, forty 
canal-boats have been already built. 
About $150,000 have been, or will 
be expended in all in fitting up this 
yard, and when completed the cai)acity 
will be about one boat and from two 
to four cars a day. In a large build- 
ing, 156 feet by 60 feet wide, will not 
only be placed all the machinery, ex- 
cept that which is to be found in the 
saw-mill, but all that will be necessary 
to keep a sash and door manufactory, 
capable of doing $100,000 worth of 
work per annum, in operation. A saw- 
mill, capable of turning out eighty 
thousand feet of lumber a week, is be- 
ing erected, a large blacksmith shoj) is 
already in operation, lengthy piers are 
being extended into the river, and at 
the opening of the spring of i866, not 
less than four hundred hands will be 
employed. 

Adjoining the upper yard of Frick 
& Co., to the south, is the immense 
establishment of Reaney, Son &: Arch- 
bold, probably the largest and most 
complete of the kind in the country. 
There, within an area of twenty-three 
acres, eight or. nine hundred men — 
carpenters, blacksmiths, coppersmiths 
and others — daily i)ly their respective 
avocations, earning for themselves a 
comfortable remuneration, and giving 
to their employers a reputation and a 
fortune. Along twelve hundred feet 
of tlie ri\er front, and extendin'; back 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



431 



to Front street, may be seen the build- 
ings of this noted firm, and not the 
least of the facilities offered to ship- 
owners, is the marine railway, capable 
of holding a vessel of seven hundred 
tons burden. Orders for work are re- 
ceived from all parts of the country, 
and not only are iron and wooden crafts 
of all sizes and forms constructed at this 
yard, but also all kinds of machinery 
for use upon the land and upon the sea, 
and huge locomotives, which would be a 
credit to Baldwin or Norris, of our own 
city. About three-fourths of the work 
performed is marine, and with an in- 
vestment of about three-fourths of a 
million of dollars, the business has 
averaged about one millions of dollars 
a year during the last five years. 

To enumerate all the brick and frame 
structures within the enclosure of the 
Pennsylvania Iron Works, for such they 
are termed, would occupy more space 
than we have at our command ; but to 
convey an idea of the immensity of the 
establishment, we give a brief descrip- 
tion of a few: The erecting-shop, in 
which all kinds of machinery is erected, 
is i6o feet long, 60 feet wide, and 34 
feet high, and has within itswalls three 
cranes, each of which is capable of 
raising thirty tons. The machine shop 
is two stories high, 150 feet long, and 
60 feet wide, the upper floor being used 
for the making and storing of patterns. 
The blacksmith shop is 130 feet long, 
60 feet wide, and 30 feet high, and has 
within it a one ton steam hammer, and a 
Nasymth double-acting steam hammer 
recently imported from England, at a 
cost of fifteen hundred dollars, and 
which can strike a blow equal to the 
force of 4500 pounds; a boiler shop 
150 feet long by 60 feet wide, with 
wing attached, 80 feet long and 50 feet 
wide; a foundry 160 feet long, 60 feet 



wide, and 32 feet high, in which are 
two cranes, each capable of lifting 
thirty tons, and with cupolas capable 
of making a casting of thirty-five tons 
weight ; a car shop 200 feet long by 50 
feet wide, with a wing attached of 80 
feet in length ; a coppersmith-shop and 
brass-foundry and numerous buildings 
connected with the boat-yard in which 
are kept punches, shears, rollers, presses 
and furnaces, capable of doing the 
heaviest work in the iron ship-building 
line. To the uninitiated, the ease with 
which one of the punches, weighing 
some twelve tons, can force a three inch 
hole through a two inch plate of iron, is 
astonishing, a huge pair of shears, near 
by, clips without difficulty, a piece of 
inch-and-a-half iron. About 25000 
tons of coal and 3000 tons of iron are 
used in the course of a year. During 
the war, Reaney, Son & Archbold, did 
avast deal of work for the Government, 
and hundreds of thousands of dollars 
were added to their receipts from this 
source in the single item of repairs. 
They built and fitted out three monitors 
— the Sanga?}ion, Lehigh and Tunxis, 
one gunboat — the Tahoma ; four dou- 
ble-enders — the Paul Jones, Wateree, 
Suwanee and Shamokin ; and two tugs 
— the Pinta and Nina. During the 
same period they have built and launch- 
ed fifty merchant vessels, in size from 
a tug-boat to a steamer of nearly fifteen 
hundred tons; but by far the finest in 
every respect which has yet been launch- 
ed from their ways is the Thomas Kelso, 
a steamer intended for the Chesapeake 
Bay route. Reaney & Archbold have 
purchased a large quantity of land just 
outside their business establishments, 
upon a portion of which they have 
erected fifty or sixty houses for the ac- 
commodation of their workmen, and 
are now building at their own expense, 



432 



HISTORY OF CUESTEK. 



a hamlsoiiK' brick Presbyterian church, 
which will seat about seven hundred 
persons." 

The editor of the Republican in com- 
menting on the above article says, 
among- other things: 

" \ single ward only in our Borough has been 
described. We have now in operation forty 
steam engines, nineteen of which are in the 
undescribed portion. Three additional facto- 
ries are in process of erection ; and then we 
have the flourishing villages of Upland, Leiper- 
ville, Shoemakerville, Waterville, and Lin- 
wood. The first named has a population of 
over looo. These villages are near enough to 
us to be counted suburbs of our town. We 
estimate our population at looo more than 
the credit given. Our facilities for communica- 
tion with the outside world are unsurpassed. 
We have thirty-four arrivals and departures^ 
daily, of passenger and freight trains, three or 
four steamers daily, one steam freight boat and 
two sailing packets. There is a projected rail- 
road of about eight miles from the terminus of 
the Baltimore Central road, down the valley of 
Chester Creek, which will connect us with this 
road and the Philadelphia and West Chester 
railroad, with the two sections of our rich sis- 
ter county of Chester, with the prosperous 
counties in Maryland through which the Cen- 
tral road passes, and with the great Pennsyl- 
vania road, by which we can be supplied with 
lime, timber, iron and bituminous coal, and 
send in return our manufactured lumber, Jer- 
sey produce, fish, and the products of our manu- 
factories and workshops. 

In addition to our river front, where land has 
advanced to the fabulous prices stated, we have 
a fine tide-water, navigable stream, running 
through the centre of our town, and another 
along its northern boundary, upon both of which 
are eligible sites for manufacturing purposes, 
and on which land can be purchased at less 
than one-half, and some at less than one-third 
the price named on the Delaware. The ex- 
tensive works, and the improvements now be- 
ing made by Crosby P. Morton, Miller & Al- 
len, the Messrs. Spencer and Henry MTlvain 
and other citizens are worthy of notice." 

A second article in the Press says: 
"The income derived from ('iiester by 



the Government in 1864 was about 
;^5o,ooo; and among the wealthiest citi- 
zens may be named the Crozer family, 
who had in the aggregate last year an 
income of about ^225,000. Samuel 
M. Felton, the late estimable President 
of the Philadelphia, Wilmington & 
Baltimore Railroad Co., about S26,- 
000 ; Abraham R. Perkins, one of the 
oldest dry-goods merchants of Phila- 
deli)hia, about $18,000 ; Thomas Rea- 
ney & Son, about ^28,000 ; R. N. 
Thompson, about $11,000, and L. T. 
Rutter about $8,000. Samuel Eccles 
paid a tax for 1864 of $1,034, and the 
Gartside family more than $2,000. 
Probably no town in the State has 
grown with the same rapidity as Ches- 
ter. 

In the North Ward we find two cot- 
ton and three woolen mills in opera- 
tion, and three woolen and one cotton 
mill building. One of the first belongs 
to Gen. Robert Patterson, of this city, 
and is operated under the supervision 
of James Stevens. It is known as the 
'Broadstreet Mill,' has 6000 spindles, 
and employs 200 hands. The fabrics 
made are shirting stripes, table cloths, 
ticking and denims, about 5000 yards 
of which are turned out every day, re- 
quiring in the course of a week some 
8000 pounds of raw material. The 
other cotton factory belongs to Abra- 
ham Blakely, and employs about 100 
males and females, who, with 3000 spin- 
dles and about 4000 pounds of raw ma- 
terial a week, tin-n out over 21,000 
yards of fabric. In the Middle Ward 
are two cotton factories, one belonging 
to Gen. Patterson, and operated by 
Stephens, and the other owned by Wil- 
liam Lewis. The former, known as 
the 'Henry Clay,' is situated in the 
centre of the borough, in the old build- 
ing familiarly known as the 'old Jail.' 



HISTORY OF CIIESTEK. 



433 



This antiquated structure has been I 
greatly enlarged, and throughout its 1 
length, breadth and height, we find ex- 
pensive machinery in operation. About 
125 persons are employed, and during 
working hours, 3500 spindles are kept 
continually revolving. 5000 pounds 
of raw material are used each week, 
and from 3500 to 4000 yards of shirt- 
ing stripes, ticks and denims manu- 
factured each day. Mr. Lewis's mill, 
the ' Chester Dock,' is about the same 
capacity as the 'Henry Clay.' 

In the South Ward there are one cot- 
ton and six woolen mills, the former 
belonging to Irving & Leiper, and em- 
ploying about 60 hands. It has 2000 
spindles, and turns out about 3000 
pounds of yarn per week. It is esti- 
mated that in the two mills belonging 
to Gen. Patterson, no less than $325,- 
000 have been invested, and that the 
sales during the present year will amount 
to ^700,000, or nearly ^200,000 more 
than the combined sales of the cotton 
and woolen mills in 1859. The princi- 
pal manufacturers of woolen goods in 
Chester are the Gartside family. The 
father and two sons have one mill in 
the South Ward, and another son, John, 
has one in the same locality. The first 
is situate near the river bank, and is 
confined exclusively to the manufac- 
ture of Kentucky jeans, although dur- 
ing the war an immense quantity of 
army goods were made there. It con- 
tains three sets of machinery, 52 looms, 
and with 75 employees turns out about 
7000 yards a week, the quantity of raw 
material required during the six days 
being about 3600 pounds. John Gart- 
side' s mill is much smaller, but con- 
tains the same number of sets of ma- 
chinery, and manufactures flannels of 
different colors, of which 5000 yards 
a week are made, requiring 400 jiounds 



a day of raw material. Samuel Eccles, 
Jr., who removed to Chester about 
six years ago and engaged in the wool- 
en business, has a mill on James Street, 
which contains two sets of machinery 
and 38 looms, and employs about 40 
persons. About 2500 pounds of mate- 
rial is used, and about 5000 yards of 
Kentucky jeans are manufactured per 
week. 

The other woolen mills in the South 
Ward are the Lamokin, in which cas- 
simeres are manufactured; Lilley & 
Yarnall's jean mill ; and Hall & Long- 
botham's, in which jeans are made, and 
cotton goods finished and bleached, 
and each has about the same capacity 
as Mr. Eccles'. Mr. Green's mill, and 
that of Mr. Lownes, and the others, 
situated in North Ward, manufacture 
woolen goods. 

Chester has but one newspaper, con- 
ducted by Y. S. Walter, the present 
proprietor, who is also the editor and 
local reporter. He issued the first num- 
ber of the Delaware County Republi- 
can in the year 1833, ^^^ t)y the ju- 
dicious use of his pen and by patient 
industry, has made his journal one of 
the most successful, and certainly the 
neatest in appearance, of the inland 
Pennsylvania press. 

The property of Gen. Edward F. 
Beale the accomplished traveller, and 
who, of late, has become noted as an elo- 
quent Union orator, comprising about 
twenty-six acres, situated in the centre 
of the town and watered by Chester 
Creek, has been divided into town lots, 
and will be placed in the market. He 
owns the attractive spot adjoining the 
railroad depot, which, from the sum- 
mer beauty of its forest and deciduous 
trees, adds so much to the appearance 
of Chester. 

Crosbv P. Morton, wlio had done 



l:il 



ISTOHV OK CHESTER. 



so inucli for C'hestcr, has lately pur- 
chased a large number of acres in Mid- 
dle Ward, which, having been divided 
into town lots, many have already found 
purchasers. The extensive factory of 
John J. Green, and that of Mr. Lewis, 
are erected upon this new purchase. 
Mr. Morton has erected a large num- 
ber of dwelling houses for the opera- 
tives of these factories. He has also 
built a dockj into which the tide of 
the Delaware ebbs and flows, and at 
which lumber and coal can be landed. 

Accommodations for the shipping of 
the town have not been overlooked. 
Mr. Baker, who recently purchased the 
wharf property owned by Thomas I. 
Leiper, is engaged in building a wharf 
of over one hundred yards in length, 
which will secure to vessels arriving 
from foreign ports a safe anchorage. 

Lewis Ladomus and Wm. H. Flavill 
have purchased a tract of land in North 
Ward, overlooking the Borough pro- 
per, which they have laid out into build- 
ing lots." 

During the winter of 1871-2, the 
second Japanese Embassy visited the 
United States. The Philadelphia In- 
ijuirer, of Apl. 8, 1872, says : " Yester- 
day was the last day of the sojourn of 
the Japanese Embassy in our city. The 
committee of escort determined to af- 
ford them a pleasant trip down the river 
as far as Chester, as a fitting termination 
of their visit, and this came off on Sat- 
urday, (April 6, 1872,) on board the 
U. S. Revenue Marine Steamer Colfax, 
just returned from a three months' 
cruise off Cape Henry and Henlopen, 
where she has been assisting vessels in 
distress. She is a new craft, having 
been, built last year at Kaighn's Point. 
The day was a remarkably fine one, 
and the trip was enjoyed by all on 
board. The numerous vessels whose 



white sails studded the river, and tlie 
different descriptions of river craft, 
and ships and schooners, added great- 
ly to the beauty of the scene. The 
vessel ran close to League Island so as 
to afford the embassy a good view of 
the Monitors stationed there, and the 
preparations being made for tlie re- 
moval of the Navy Yard to the island. 
About half past three o'clock the ves- 
sel hove to at the landing at Chester. 
The party landed and commenced an 
inspection of the extensive establish- 
ment of the Delaware River Iron Shij)- 
building and Engine Works. These 
are the largest in the country, and give 
employment to one thousand men. A 
revenue cutter, called the Mistletoe, has 
just been completed for the United 
States. She is a beautiful craft, and 
elicited much admiration from the com- 
pany. Upon the stocks in progress of 
construction is an iron steamship for 
the Pacific Mail Steamship Co., 301 
feet in length, and to-day the keel of 
another vessel, twelve feet longer, for 
the same company, will be laid. Also, 
a steamship for the Galveston and New 
York line, 232 feet long ; a steamer for 
a private individual, and an iron ferry- 
boat for the Hunter's Point and New 
York Ferry Company, besides several 
steam tugs. The entire establishment, 
which resembles a huge hive of indus- 
try, was thoroughly inspected. The 
machine shop, which is said to be one 
of the most complete in the world, 
received many favorable comments 
from Hidi. An hour was passed in 
this most interesting place, after which 
the party re-embarked, and the Colfax 
started on her return to the city. When 
off Fort Mifflin a salute of twenty-one 
guns was fired in honor of the distin- 
guished guests. After the salute. 
Tommy proposed three cheers for the 



IIISTOKY OF CHESTER. 



4-55 



Co/fax, whicli were given with a will. 
From the mainmast of the vessel the 
flag of Japan proudly fluttered. The 
Japanese before leaving the boat, regis- 
tered their names on the " log" of the 
vessel. Tommy, was one of the suite 
of the Embassy on this occasion and 
in the former one, which was the first 
embassy ever sent out by Japan to a 
Christian nation. Tommy was jolly 
and full of fun, a favorite with every 
one." 

The following remarks of Hon. 
Washington Townsend, the Represen- 
tative in the United States Congress 
from Chester and Delaware Counties, 
made on Dec. 4, 1873, ^^^ '^'^''7 ''^P' 
propriate in this connection. 

Mr. Townsend, (Pa.) said: " I take issue 
with the gentleman from Maine, (Mr. Lynch), 
when he tells the House that there are no 
private ship-yards in the country that are capa- 
ble of building vessels of war. I want to say 
to him, that of my own knowledge there are 
ship-yards to-day that are executing contracts 
for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and 
for other companies, and are building ships 
under the i-equirements of the acts of Con- 
gress, that are suitable for vessels of war. A 
ship-yard at Chester, Pa., has just launched 
one of the most magnificent iron vessels that 
the merchant service of this country ever pos- 
sessed ; a vessel of about two thousand tons 
burden, made of iron, and so made that at 
any time it can l)e turned into a vessel of war 
at very little exjiensc. l,<i\ver down the rixer 
Delaware, at Wilmington, in the State of 
Delaware, a shipbuilding company has also 
just launched a similar vessel, and the .ship- 
yards of both of these places have now on the 
stocks magnificent vessels, equal in size with 
those already launched, and which will be 
sent forth upon the ocean in a very short time 
to compete with other nations for the com- 
merce of the world. So, too, further up, at a 
ship-yard in the city of Philadelphia, last sum- 
mer were built and launched two vessels for 
the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, as strong 
and well l)uilt, as capable of ocean naviga- 
tion, and as easily turned into war vessels as 

5<; 



any that were ever built in this c(junlry. It is 
a mistake of the gentleman from Maine (Mr. 
Lynch) to suppose that the ship-yards of any 
one of these three places are not now fully 
equipped to build these vessels at the shortest 
notice. I know, because I have gone through 
them all, that they have all the means and 
appliances necessary for the purpose ; that 
they have skilled workmen ; that they have 
admirable machinery; and that the country 
close around them furnishes them the very 
best iron in the world, having the greatest 
tensile strength, and is in every way adapted 
for any vessels that can be set afloat on the 
ocean for commerce or for war." 

In the Washington Congressional 
correspondence of the Inquirer, of 
x\pril 14, 1874, will be found the fol- 
lowing statement, viz. : 

" John Roach of the Chester ship-yards, was 
before the House Postal Committee to-day for 
over two hours, upon the merits of continuing 
the subsidy to the China Mail Line. He re- 
viewed the ocean mail service of the world, 
and maintained that, without subsidy, the 
American line could not hold the commerce 
of the Pacific against the subsidized lines of 
the English and French Governments, now 
running semi-monthly lines to Japan. 

He claimed that within the last year, iron 
ships had been built as cheap on the Dela- 
ware as upon the Clyde ; of better material, 
and of equal workmanship to any in the 
world, and without a difference of five pev 
cent, in cost from those built by the poorly 
paid labor of Europe. In his own yard he 
had last year built at an average of a ship a 
month, averaging three thousand tons burden ; 
had consumed 25,000,000 pounds of American 
iron, and paid every week, $30,000 out to his 
mechanics. 

He made quite an impression upon the 
Committee by his thorough knowledge of his 
business, and its bearings upon the trade and 
wealth of nations. To a question, he replied 
that for thirty years it had been the aim of his 
life to see a steamship yard on the Delaware 
which would be superior to any in the world. 
He thought he had succeeded, and never felt 
prouder than he did all last winter when he 
saw his two thousand five hundred mechanics 
go home on Saturday night with their money 



48G 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



all in tlitir ])<)ckcts, and fell that hut for the 
aid ihc (u)veinmeiit liad given to secure the 
coinnierce of the Pacihc, he would have been 
compelled to iiavc locked up his yard, and 
that the same work would have been done on 
the Clyde, and the money paid to England, 
which he had secured for American mechan- 
ics." 

The Evening News, of May 9, 1876, 
says, from data recently collected, the 
following statistics may be given as 
applicable to Chester, and her suburb, 
South Chester, viz. : 

Population, 13,000 Sugar refineries, i 

Dwelling Houses 2,500 Brass foundries, i 

Cottonand woolen fac, 25 Carriage factories, 3 

Shipyards, 6 Axe factories,- i 

Machine shops, 6 Banks, 4 

Rolling mills, i Newspapers, 8 

Planing mills, 4 Churches, 15 

Car shops, i Building Associations, 14 



XLVll. 

The Flower family of Chester, 
Pennsylvania, dates its origin from the 
Norman conquest. Hugh, one of those 
adventurers that gathered under the 
standard of the Duke of Normandy, 
when he announced his intention of 
invading England, from his remarka- 
ble beauty, says Playfair, in his Noble 
Families of England, and his valorous 
conduct on the field of battle, re- 
ceived the name of La Fleuj-, which, 
in the course of time became trans- 
lated into the corresponding English 
term of Flower. Manning, in the 
Lives of Speakers of the House of Com- 
nwns, in the article on Sir Roger 
Flower, (Speaker, in 1416-17-19 in 
the reign of Henry V.,) brings down 
in a short form, an account of the 
family in Great Britain to within a 
period of thirty years of tlu- ])ublica- 
tion of his work. 

In 1683, Knoch Flower was appoint- 
ed schoolmaster by Coimcil. d Col. 
Rcc, 91.) Tlie will of I'jioch Flower, 



dated and proven in 1684, mentions 
his mother, Susanna Flower, brother 
Seth and nephews John and Henry 
Flower, sons of Seth, but no children 
of his own. 

An early mention of the name of 
Flower in this country is found in 
Shourd's History of Salem County, New 
yersey, published in the Salem Stand- 
ard, in which it is stated that on the i6th 
of 7th mo., 1686, " A warrant to Rich- 
ard Tindall, Surveyor General, to lay 
out no acres of fast land and marsh 
on Oldman's Creek to Wm. Flower, 
as a part of Wm. Fleetwood's 500 
acres, granted by Gov. Penn. ' ' About 
the year 1692, Wm. Flower settled 
near Marcus Hook. At that date he 
was in membership with Friends, and 
was that year married to Elizabeth 
Morris, a member of Concord Meet- 
ing. No doubt he was related to Enoch 
Flower, who was a purchaser of 2000 
acres of land from William Penn, for 
he had a son named Enoch, and a 
daughter Mary. He died in 171 7, 
leaving a widow, Sarah, which shows 
that he had lost his first wife and mar- 
ried again. 

Enoch Flower, married Rebecca, 
daughter of Richard Barnard, in 1713, 
and had three daughters ; Elizabeth, m. 
Samuel Oaks; Rebecca,?/;, a Lincoln; 
Mary, m. Richard Anderson. 

William Flower, in his will, devises 
all his real estate to Mary, who had 
married John Flower, then residing in 
Chichester. This John, so family tradi- 
tion states, was a son or grand-son of 
Sir Charles Flower, at one time. Lord 
Mayor of London, and who was highly 
offended by the predilection the young 
man showed for the religion of Friends.* 

* Neither John nor Mary Flower, nor any 
of their children, were in membership with 
Friends. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



437 



John died in 1738, leaving six chil- 
dren, (when Mary died is not known,) 
Richard, John, Thomas, William, 
Mary and Margaret. Margaret Flower 
married Joseph Moulder ; they had 
two children, one of whom, Mary 
Moulder, died in 1862, aged 105 
years; my aunt, Mrs. Ann C. Smith, 
remembers her very well, and says : 
"She was a remarkably young looking 
woman for her age, with a neat, youth- 
ful figure, and must have been very 
handsome in her youth." She was 
buried in St. Martin's churchyard, at 
Marcus Hook. 

Mary, daughter of John and Mary, 
married Richard Riley, Esq., of Mar- 
cus Hook, Attorney at Law, and a 
Justice of the Peace and of the Courts 
of Chester County, commissioned in 
1764. 

Of the sons, John, Thomas and 
William, little is now known. Some 
of them married and had issue. The 
Harrison family, of Richmond, Vir- 
ginia, are descended from Sarah Flow- 
er, who was a daughter of one of the 
three brothers ; and through the same 
source the family are said to be con- 
nected with the Lea's of Wilmington, 
Delaware, to which family Bishop Lea 
belongs. Some years since, there was 
in New Orleans, William and Richard 
Flower, said to be descendants of one 
of the three brothers of Delaware Co. 
The Rev. Ethan Allen, D. D., of 
Baltimore, says : " My wife's two sis- 
ters, Lucy and Ann Griffeth, some- 
what before 1820, married brothers, 
James and William Flower, of New 
Orleans. They each left two sons ; 
one of James' named James, is a mer- 
chant in New Orleans ; one of Wil- 
liams' named Samuel, I have heard, is 
a planter near St. Francisville." The 
other two are dead. 



Richard Flower, who was born in 
Chichester in 1724, was the eldest son 
of John and Mary Flower, and became 
a man of influence in the county. In 
1746, he married Hannah, grand- 
daughter of Emanuel Grubb, of Brandy- 
wine Hundred, an earnest Episcopa- 
lian. He died Jan. 25, 1752, aged 38 
years. His wife, Hannah, was born 
in 1728. After his death she married 
John Wall, a merchant of Philadelphia, 
and had one son, Reese Wall, who 
was drowned towards the end of the 
eighteenth century in the Delaware 
Bay. Mrs. Wall survived her husband 
and died Feb. 24, 1810, aged 82 years. 
Her remains are interred in the same 
grave with her first husband in St. 
Martin's Churchyard. 

Richard and Hannah Flower left 
five children ; Mary, John, Rachel, 
Jemima Edwards and Richard Flower. 
Mary married Joseph Gamble ; they 
had two children, Joseph and Hannah ; 
Joseph married Mary Thompson, and 
their only daughter, Mary, became 
the wife of Commodore Isaac Mc- 
Keever, U. S. Navy, and was the 
mother of the present Major and Bv't 
Brig. Gen. Chauncey McKeever, Ad- 
jutant General's Dep't, U. S. Army ; 
of Lawrence McKeever, coffee mer- 
chant, New York City ; of Marion 
Speedon, and Caroline Rosenplanther, 
of Germany. 

John Flower, son of Richard and 
Hannah, became a very successful flour 
merchant of Philadelphia ; married 
Elizabeth Beetham, of English birth. 
They were married in Chester Meet- 
ing, and lived in the house at the 
S. E. cor. of Second and Edgmont, 
afterwards known as the " Siddon's 
House." John Hanley kept a res- 
taurant there before his death, a few 
years ago. Mrs. Flower died without 



438 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



issue, many years before her lnisl)and. 
He died Oct. ii, 1825, aged 75, leav- 
ing a large estate, which was divided 
between his heirs-at-law. His remains 
lie in the churchyard of St. Martin's. 

Rachel Flower, daughter of Richard 
and Hannah, married Samuel Sanders; 
they had two sons, John and Samuel, 
and a daughter Hannah. 

Jemima Edwards Flower married 
Capt. John McKeever ; they had four 
sons, John, James, Richard and Reese. 

Richard Flower, of Lamokin, son 
of Richard and Hannah, was born in 
1759. In 1786, he married Henrietta, 
daughter of Henry Hale Graham, who 
purchased for the newly wedded pair 
the property on Ridley Creek known 
as Leiper's Mills. Reese W. Flower 
says they went there to live with Rich- 
ard's step-father, John Wall, who owned 
the property, from which place they 
removed to " Chester Mills," at Up- 
land. Mr. Flower, his brother John, 
his half-brother Reese Wall, and his 
brother-in-law, Capt. John McKeever, 
became connected together in the 
ownership of vessels, and were heavy 
shippers of grain to Europe, and in 
the disturbed condition in which our 
affairs were with the Republic of France 
during the last decade of the last cen- 
tury, three of their vessels and cargoes 
were seized, condemned, and sold by 
the French. The proofs of these 
claims are now on file in the State de- 
partment of our Government, and 
their heirs are living in false hopes of 
getting paid some day. During the 
war of 181 2, the American troops im- 
pressed flour from the Chester mills, 
for which, however, the Government 
afterwards paid full value. In 1824, 
Mr. Flower moved to Ridley again, 
and in 1825 to T^amokin, (where 
Abraham R. Perkins now resides,) and 



died there July 24, 1843, in his 84th 
year, and was buried at St. Martin's. 
His wife, Henrietta, who died Oct. 6, 
1 841, was buried in Friends' grave 
yard, at Chester. They left issue, 
Zedekiah Wyatt, William G., Mary 
Ann, Jeremiah E., Reese Wall and 
Henrietta G. Flower. 

Zedekiah W. Flower, 2nd son of 
Richard and Henrietta, born in Rid- 
ley, Nov. 28, 1788, and married, Oct. 
24, 1 81 2, Mary Brinton, eldest daughter 
of Thomas B. and Phoebe Dick, born 
in Chester Township, Feb. 3, 1791 ; 
issue, Thomas B. , Henrietta G. , who 
died in 1816, /o/i//, Richard, Haiinah 
G., Archibald T. £>., and Mary B. 
Mrs. Flower died, June 19, 1832, and 
her husband, Feb. 14, 1846. 

Rev. Thomas B. Flower, -^ovl of Z. 
W. and Mary B., married Rebecca T. 
Brown, of Chestertown, Md., where 
he had charge of a church for several 
years; and^/. July, 1863, leaving James 
F., Archibald T., Mary B. D., and 
Joseph S. Flower. James and Mary 
died without issue. 

John Flower married Mary A. Gra- 
ham, of Chester. They had issue, Reese 
W., Hannah G., Gilbert E., Archibald 
T. D., Margaret R., Richard H. and 
Thomas B. Reese W. tn. Annie E^llis, 
of Williamsport ; issue, Henry E. and 
Marion E. Hannah G. t)i. Henry C. 
Carr, of Petersburg, Va. ; have Henry 
C, Mary F. and an infant. Margaret 
R. m. Benjamin Shipley, Carrol Co., 
Md. ; have one child, Henry. The 
other children of John and Mary G. 
Flower are single. When the late war 
of the Rebellion broke out, John 
Flower, (son of Zedekiah W. and 
Mary B.,) was living on a farm in Din- 
widdle County, Va., three miles from 
Petersburg. He wa,s the only ]XTson 
in the county who voted for Virginia's 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



439 



remaining in the Union. His vote 
was recorded, and he was requested to 
leave the State at once, but before he 
could do so, he was seized and kept 
in prison for five months and seven 
days. He was then released on bail 
and made his escape to the North, and 
a few years afterwards removed to 
Howard County, Md., where he died, 
July I, 1873, ^T^om the effects of his 
imprisonment, having been a sufferer 
and in feeble health ever after his re^ 
lease. 

Richard, 4th child of Z. W. and 
Mary B. Flower, married Eleanor 
Graham, of Chester, and had Zede- 
kiah W., William E., Edward G., 
Reese W., Richard, Archibald T. D., 
and Mary B. Z. W., Jr., married 
Margaret A. Kensil, of Montgomery 
County; had Cora M., and Eleanor 
G. William E., married Margaret H. 
Sheperdson, of Germantown ; have 
issue, Richard and David B. Reese 
W., married Helen Brouse, of Chelten- 
ham; had one child, Jeanette. Zede- 
kiah W., entered " CoUis' Zouaves," 
Aug. 14, 1862, and on Nov. 15, en- 
listed in the 5th Regular Cavalry'; 
discharged, Nov. 15, 1865. William 
E., went in the army as a substitute 
for his father, who was drafted in the 
State draft for 9 months, Oct. 17, 
1862 ; discharged, July 26, 1863. 
The other children are single, and 
reside with their parents in Mont- 
gomery County. 

Hannah G., 5th child of Z. W. and 
Mary B. Flower, married Samuel 
B. Thomas, Esq., of West Chester. 
They afterwards removed to Media. 
They have Griffith, Mary B. D., George 
B. , Archibald D. , and Christopher F. 
Hannah G. Thomas, died Jan. 20, 
1870. Her brother, Archibald T. D. 
Flower, died Oct. 1837. 



Mary B. Flower, dau. of Z. W. and 
Mary B., married John C. Knowles, 
of Darby Township. They have one 
daughter, Fanny M. N., and a son, 
Henry B. Knowles. 

William G. Flower, son of Rich- 
ard and Henrietta, of Lamokin, was 
born Nov. 27, 1794. He was a very 
active business man all his days. In 
1824 he rented the Chester Mills, and 
operated them until after the death of 
his father, when they were sold to divide 
his estate. During the great freshet of 
August 1843, when the creeks became 
so swollen, William G. Flower being in 
the meadow, near his mill, when the 
flood came down in great waves, which 
spectators stated were from three to 
four feet in height, it swept him before 
it. He was carried into the old mill 
race, where, catching hold of a grape- 
vine, he drew himself into a tree, but 
no sooner had he clasped the trunk, 
than the tree was torn from the earth 
and borne rapidly down the creek. 
After some moments of peril, during 
which his life was in great danger from 
the floating timber, trees and other 
debris whirled down the stream by the 
flood, he succeeded in grasping the 
branches of another tree, still stand- 
ing, and drew himself to a place of 
safety. 

William G. Flower married Susan, 
dau. of William and Sarah S(mith) 
Bratton, and died Aug. 21, 1865, 
leaving surviving him his widow and 
five children ; Marietta, Anna Maria, 
(now deceased,) Willi am G., Charles, 
and John Reese Flower. 

Mary Ann, daughter of Richard 
and Henrietta Flower, of Lamokin, 
was born in 1800, and married Tru- 
man M. Hubbell. Their son, Wm. 
Wheeler Hubbell, Esq., a member 
of the Philadeli)hia Bar, was the in- 



440 



HISTORY OF CHP]STEK. 



ventor of the '' 'I'huiulerbolt Shell," 
used by the Government of the United 
States during the late " unpleasantness" 
with the South, and lately, by Act of 
Congress, received a handsome re- 
muneration, to which he was justly 
entitled. 

Jemima E., daughter of Richard 
and Henrietta Flower, born June 30, 
1804, married Nov. 8, 1827, Jeremiah 
Williamson Flickwir, born in Phila- 
delphia, July 4, 1802 ; son of David 
and Rebecca W. ; apprenticed when 
12 years old, to his cousin, Peter Wil- 
liamson, a druggist, at 2d and Almond 
streets. He commenced business on 
his own account when 20 years old, 
at 2d and Mead, where he resided un- 
til 1839, when he moved to Chester, 
to Fairview Farm, which he purchased 
of Stephen Madgin. In 1844, he re- 
turned to his native city, and became 
connected with the drug house of J. 
P. & William Wetherill. Upon the 
death of John Price Wetherill, he re- 
turned to his farm and remained there 
until February, 1861, when he sold it to 
James Garland, and removed to Ches- 
ter, and was Deputy Collector of U. S. 
Internal Revenue until his death, Oct. 
27, 1866. In Dec. 1864, he opened 
a drug store in National Hall, where 
he soon built up a large business. He 
was buried in Chester Rural Cemetery, 
leaving issue; Henrietta G., David 
Henry, Richard F., Mary Gardiner, 
Josephine W., (died in 1863,) Anna 
Sophia, Helen G. , and Sallie Flickwir. 

Anna S. Flickwir, married John 
Warrington Caldwell, son of John, 
Nov. II, 1869, they have John Alfred, 
and Mary, an infant. 

David H. Flickwir, Ijorn in Phila- 
delphia, removed to Illinois, mar- 
ried Rebecca C, daughter of C. J. 
and Kli/.ai)eth Norbury, formerly of 



Phila{leli)hia, Oct. 22, 1861, and has 
issue ; Jeremiah W., Elizabeth Spence, 
Charles N., David H., Jr., and Joseph 
W. Flickwir. 

Richard F. Flickwir, born in Phila- 
delphia, entered the dry goods house 
of Taylor & Paulding; and when they 
retired from business in 1856, he re- 
moved to Illinois, where he engaged 
in business with his brother Z^aw'^ for 
eight years. In Oct. 1864, he re- 
moved to Chester, and entered busi- 
ness with his father, and sold out his 
drug store in 1869, to Dr. William B. 
Ulrich, and is now assistant Postmaster 
at Chester. 

Reese Wall Flower, son of Rich- 
ard and Henrietta of Lamokin, was 
a lumber merchant in Philadelphia. 
After retiring from business he resided 
for many years upon his plantation in 
Upper Darby ; finally he removed to 
West Philadelphia, where he died, un- 
married, June 27, 1875, aged 69 years, 
leaving nearly all his large estate to the 
University of Pennsylvania to found 
an Astronomical Observatory. 

Henrietta G., daughter of Rich- 
ard and Henrietta Flower, born at 
Chester Mills, Upland, June 20, 1809, 
married John Wayne Ashmead, Esq., 
of the Philadelphia Bar, Nov. 27, 
1S29. Mr. A.'s family were among 
the earliest settlers in that city; John 
Ashmead, from England, having come 
to America in 1682. He was a son of 
William and Margaret (McKinley) 
Ashmearl, and a grand-son of Capt. 
John A., the fourth John in direct de- 
scent from John the first settler at 
Cheltenham, Bucks, and was born in 
Philadelphia, May 16, 1806. Having 
lost his parents in infancy, he was 
brought up by three maternal aunts. 
At 15 years of age, he wasaj^prenticed 
to Isaac Ashmead to learn printing, 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



441 



and in 1824, began to read law with 
the late Judge of Admiralty, Archibald 
Randall, now deceased, working at 
his trade by day and studying law by 
night. At that time the rules of Court 
required that the last year of a student 
reading law should be actually passed 
in the office of a practicing" attorney. 
It was therefore necessary for Mr. 
Ashmead, in order to obtain that year, 
to purchase his time of his master. 
To make the sum requisite — $150, 
he worked over time, collecting and 
printing the popular songs of the day 
in pamphlet form, setting up all the 
matter and doing all the press-work 
himself. This exciting life of work 
and hard study nearly killed our am- 
bitious youth ; bringing on an attack 
of brain fever. Previous to his sick- 
ness, he got only three or four hours 
sleep at nights. The song books he sold 
at wholesale to stationers, and made 
enough to pay for his time. May 5, 
1827, he was called to the Bar. His 
brother, the Rev. William Ashmead, 
who had attained a prominent posi- 
tion in the Presbyterian Church, a 
short sketch of whose life may be seen 
in ' ' Spragtie' s Annals of the American 
Church,'''' loaned him enough to fur- 
nish his office. From this time he had 
a successful life as a barrister. In 
1832, he was elected a member of the 
Legislature, and shortly afterwards, 
during the attorney generalship of 
George M. Dallas and Ellis Lewis, he 
was deputy Attorney General for Phila- 
delphia. In 1838, he purchased Kenil- 
worth, a farm adjoining Lamokin, and 
erected a handsome country residence 
there, which he occupied during the 
summer seasons with his family. In 
1843, be was one of the original orga- 
nizers of the " Native American Party," 
and was its candidate for Congress in 



the First District, but was defeated. 
In 1849, ^""^ ^^'^^ appointed by General 
Taylor, U. S. District Attorney for the 
Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and 
was accounted one of the most able re- 
presentatives the Government ever had 
in that position. He held that office 
during Mr. Fillmore's term, and for a 
year under General Peirce. Before 
consolidation of the outlying districts 
with the city of Philadelphia, he was 
attorney for several of them, and had 
a large practice besides. His former 
office and residence in the city is now 
owned and occupied by Samuel C. 
Perkins, Esq., P. G. M. of the Grand 
Lodge of Pa., A. Y. M. 

In 1856, Mr. Ashmead removed to 
New York city, where he soon gathered 
an extensive practice, and was en- 
gaged in the celebrated Cancemi case, 
who, after having been convicted and 
sentenced to death for the murder of a 
policeman, Mr. A. obtained for him 
a succession of new trials, and finally 
saved his life. Cancemi was sen- 
tenced to death three times ; on the 
fourth trial he was convicted of man- 
slaughter. On April 7, 1868, John 
W. Ashmead died at his country seat, 
Clinton Place, near Newark, N. J., 
in his 6 2d year. Mr. A. was the 
author of '^^ Ashmead'' s IieJ>orts,'' a 
series of articles on Chatterton, in 
the Casket, a volume of " Speeches 
delivered at the Bar,''' and a number 
of political pamphlets in manuscript, 
now in possession of his widow. 

Kenilworth, the house erected by 
Mr. Ashmead, in South Ward, of the 
present city of Chester, and lately 
known as "The Reaney Mansion," 
was built in 1838, and finished in 
1840, from designs furnished by Mr. 
Strickland, the leading architect of the 
country at that day, at a cost of <ii3,- 



442 



ISTORY OF CHESTER. 



ooo. It was remarkable as the first 
square roofed house in Delaware Co. 
The bricks used in the construction of 
the building were brought on the old ' 
sloop yoiias Preston, from Philadel- 
phia, there were no brick-yards near 
Chester at that time, and were landed at | 
Eyre's wharf, on the creek. The car- | 
penter work was under the super in- [ 
tendence of Isaac Shubert, and so 
thorough a workman was he, that after 
its completion he was employed by the 
United States, at the Pea Patch, or 
Fort Delaware, and continued in the 
Government employment until his 
death. In the summer of 1844, the 
Sunday School of the First Presby- 
terian Church of Philadelphia, held 
its annual pic-nic, in the woods to the 
northwest of the present Lamokin sta- 
tion, and over eight hundred children 
were on the grounds. Frank John- 
son's colored band, a celebrated Phila- 
delphia organization of that time, ac- 
companied them. During the after- 
noon, a terrific thunder-storm forced 
the entire assemblage to take refuge in 
the dwelling house, where the Rev. 
Albert Barnes entertained the children 
with one of those instructive and in- 
teresting addresses for which he was 
so conspicuous, and which is still re- 
collected with pleasure by all who 
were present on that occassion. Later 
in the afternoon the sun burst forth in 
splendor, and Frank Johnson ascended 
to the roof, from which, observing the 
smoke of the special train, then near 
Lin wood, he performed on his silver 
bugle ' ' The Last Rose of Summer, ' ' 
in a style, such as those who heard 
him, thought had never been equalled. 
This was the last time but one that 
Frank played in public, previous to 
his death. From the roof of this 
house, during the Native American ex- 



citement of 1844, when Mr. Asli- 
mead stumped Delaware County in 
favor of that party, a large Ameri- 
can flag floated continually. Mr. Ash- 
mead also employed constantly a band 
of music, consisting of four pieces, to 
play at these political meetings, and 
the files of the Republican of that date, 
will show how often "that dreadful 
drum' ' was heard in the county. In Sep- 
tember, 1849, Mr, John Sartain came 
to Chester on a visit to Mr. Ashmead, 
and made a spirited water-colored 
sketch of the house, for publication in 
Sartain' s Magazine. That sketch is 
now in the possession of Mr. Ash- 
mead's widow, and is highly prized as 
the work of the greatest mezzotint en- 
graver the world has ever known. It 
never appeared, however, in the Maga- 
zine, for the reason that Dr. William 
Young purchased the farm, compris- 
ing one hundred and twenty-five acres, 
in October, 1849. 

The original name of the estate was 
"Landsdown," but it was changed to 
" Ken il worth," to gratify a young 
lady friend, who was infatuated with 
Sir Walter Scott's novel of that name. 
The following are the children of 
John W., and Henrietta G. Ashmead : 
Henrietta F., married in 1852, Joshua 
Alder Ellis, son of William Cox Ellis, 
of this State. He now resides in Chi- 
cago. She died in 1854, leaving one 
child, John A. Ellis. Lavinia L., 
married John E. Dyer, son of John 
G., and Arabella, of Che.ster, and 
they have a son, William Ashmead 
Dyer. Amia Francis, died unmarried , 
Dec. I, 1874. William Ashmead, the 
eldest son, born in Philadelphia, Feb. 
12, 1835, died July 2, 1872, was (I 
gather from an obituary, written by the 
hand of a loving friend,) a young man 
of much ])romise, and of loving and 



HISTORY OF GHESTE]{. 



443 



domestic habits. In enrly life he stu- 
died medicine, but never applied for 
admission to the profession. Decid- 
ing upon mercantile life, he emigrated 
to Madison, Wisconsin ; but the panic 
of 1856, destroying his hopes of suc- 
cess, he returned home and took charge 
for several years of the conveyancing 
department of his father's business, in 
New York ; and assisted him in the 
preparation of important claims before 
the various departments of the Gov- 
ernment of the United States. He 
was also a successful play-writer, many 
of his dramas having been introduced 
on the stage ; he left besides, several MS. 
dramas never acted or printed. Henry 
Graham Ashmeaii, born June 30, 1838, 
was admitted to the Bar of the Su- 
preme Court of New York, Nov. 29, 
1859, practiced until 1867, when, on 
account of ill-health, he retired from 
the profession. On Sept. 2, 1872, he 
married Rebecca Francis, daughter of 
Capt. Richard N., and Anna R. War- 
ner, of Baltimore, Md., and has a son, 
John Wayne Ashmead. Mr. Ash- 
mead, since 1867, has been a frequent 
contributor to the press, and a writer 
of historical sketches. He has anti- 
quarian tastes, and a genuine liking 
for the literary occupation he has cho- 
sen, which peculiarly fits him for its 
duties. He was admitted to the Bar 
(jf Delaware County on Feb. 23, 1875, 
and is now the editor of the Dclaivare 
County Paper and Mail ; and is a 
resident of Chester, as are all the liv- 
ing members of his father's family, 
excepting his two younger brothers, 
both of whom, Edward King Ash- 
mead, born Aug. 14, 1840, and George 
Rundle Ashmead, born Sept. 12, 1842, 
are engaged in the office of the Union 
Transfer Company, in the city of New 
York. 



Lamokin, repeatedly referred to, 
was, as I have said, the residence of 
the late Richard Flower.- The place 
has borne that old Indian name for 
over two hundred years. The pro- 
perty passed into the ownership of 
Abraham R. Perkins, nearly thirty 
years ago, and the old homestead, 
with its low porch and hipped roof, 
which faces the road to Marcus Hook, 
and the river, stands unaltered by its 
present owner, who preserves it in re- 
pair as originally built nearly a century 
ago. 

The following interesting memento 
was found among the old papers of 
Richard Flower. 

" To all 7vhom these presetits shall 
come — Oliver Evans, of New Cas- 
ile County, Delaware State, scndeth 
greeting. 

Know ye, that Richard Flower, of 
Delaware County, Pennsylvania, hath 
paid to the said Oliver Evans, the 
sum of sixty-six Spanish milled dol- 
lars, in consideration of which, the 
said Richard Flower, his Heirs, Ex- 
ecutors, Administrators, and Assigns, 
are hereby permitted to construct, 
make use of, and enjoy all the ma- 
chines necessary to produce the said 
Oliver Evans's improvements on the 
art of manufacturing grain into flour 
or meal, viz. for elevating grain and 
meal from the lower to the upper 
stories, and conveying the same from 
one part of the Mill to another, and 
for cooling the meal, and attending 
the Bolting Hoppers, for the use of 
his Mill, consisting of two Water- 
wheels situate on Chester Creek, in 
the County of Delaware, Pennsylvania, 
called Chester Mills. For and during 
all the term of years, unexpired, for 
which the exclusive privilege of mak- 
I ing, constructing, using, and vending 



444 



IIISTOKY OF CIIESTEK. 



to others to be used, the said improve- 
ments, was granted unto the said Oliver 
Evans, his Executors, Administrators, 
and Assigns, by the authority of the 
United States, by letters patent, bear- 
ing date, January 7th, 1791, and for 
such term of years as the same may 
hereafter be granted by the said au- 
thority. In witness whereof the said 
Oliver Evans hath hereunto set his 
hand and seal, this fourteenth day of 
November, in the Year of Our Lord, 
One Thousand Seven Hundred and 
Ninety-Three. 

Oi,ivEK Evans, [l. s.] 

Sealed and delivered in the presence 
of us, John Flower, Jos. Hoskins." 

Mary Ann Flowf:r, dau. of Richard 
and Henrietta (Graham), b. April 
19, 1800, at Chester Mills; d. June 
30, 1876; in. Truman Mallory Hub- 
bell, Sept. 14, 181 7, had issue: Wil- 
liam Wheeler, Jii chard Henry, Emma 
Louisa, Mary Ann Matilda and Helen 
Francis, all living, and Henrietta, 
Marietta, Samuel Moore and Clara, 
deceased. EmmaL., m. Gen. George 
W. Baldy, of New Orleans, a General of 
Volunteers, in the U. S. Army during 
the Rebellion. He served during the 
Mexican war, and was in the battle of 
Buena Vista. Mary Ann M. , m. John 
W. Templin, of the Iowa City Bar. 
Truman M. Hubbell, b. Sept. 19, 1788, 
in Massachusetts, and still living, is 
the son of Silas, a soldier in the Re- 
volution, who was in five battles under 
Wa.shington, and one of the party who 
threw the Tea overboard in Boston 
Harbor; he was at Bunker Hill, and 
helped load the cannon with log- 
chains ; after firing on the British, 
they spiked their cannon and retreated. 
This old patriot sold his mill property, 
and invested the ])roceeds in shoes 



and blankets for liis comrades. The 
Hubbell's came from England in 1649, 
and settled in Connecticut. Truman 
M., carried on the Lumber business at 
Chester Mills, in 1812. Between 1 806 
and 1812, he, and a half-brother, Wil- 
liam Wheeler, were famous rifle shots 
and hunters of wild game in Delaware 
County, New York, where they were 
in the Lumber and Rafting business. 
The game was Deer, Bear, Panther and 
Wolves, with which they had many 
desperate encounters, some of which 
have been given to the public in Sport- 
ing Magazines. 

William Wlieeler Hubbell, the eldest 
son of Truman, spent much of boyhood 
at Chester Mills and Lamokin with 
his grand-parents, and went first to 
school to Miss Eliza Finch in Chester, 
and afterwards to William Neal and 
Charles D. Manley, in the old school- 
house on Welsh Street. He studied 
law with John W. Ashmead, and was 
admitted to the Philadelphia Bar, 
March 5, 1845, ^"<^ practiced with 
great success in the U. S. Courts in 
Patent cases. Having an inventive 
talent, his scientific ability has been 
recognized by the grant to him of 
many important Patents, and fully es- 
tablished by his' invention of the ex- 
plosive shell Fuses used in the army 
and navy of the United States, weapons 
which have made the navies of the 
world abandon wooden ships of war 
and build iron-clads; which blew up 
the Bogue Forts of China, and the 
Forts and vessels of Japan, and com- 
pelled those nations to sue for peace, 
and open their countries to commerce 
and Christian civilization. Hubbell 
having patents, claimed of Congress, 
in 1862, compensation. In 1864, it 
referred the matter to the Court of 
Claims, and the IT. S. Sujjreme Court. 



HISTORY OF CHESTP:K. 



445 



The Courts sustained two of his inven- 
tions, which had proved of the great- 
est vahie to the Government. The 
following remarks are quoted from the 
decision of the Court of Claims, in 
Hubbell 7>s. U. S., 1864, No. 2124, 
on Jan. 24, 1S70. 

" For years, private parties, as well as 
various officers of the Army and Navy, had 
been directing their thoughts and inventive 
powers to the production of a Fuse that should 
be both certain and exact in the explosion of 
shells. Among these, as the evidence de- 
monstrates, there was no more intelligent, 
scientific, and persistent worker than the 
claimant. It is fully sustained by the evi- 
dence, that he has contributed, in an important 
degree, by his inventions, to the present im- 
proved and efficient projectiles in use in our 
Army and Navy. 

We further find, that Hubbell was the first 
and original inventor of the time and impact 
Fuse, as claimed by him in his patent of Jan. 
7, 1862. And, that such Fuse has been largely 
and extensively used by the United States, in 
violation of his rights as patentee. And, that 
he is justly and equitably entitled to com- 
pensation therefor, under the joint resolution 
of Congress. 

We further find, that Hubbell, the claim- 
ant, is the first and original inventor of the 
percussion Fuse, as claimed in his patent of 
Jan. 24, i860. It is proved that these fuses 
have been used in great numbers by the United 
States, in derogation of claimant's rights, scr 
cured by his patents. 

That these inventions have lieen and are of 
great importance to the Government is appar- 
ent. Several millions of these fuses were 
used during the war of the Rebellion. 

His right in every respect to compensation 
is complete and perfect, and nothing has been 
shown from which we can infer that he had 
relinquished or released that right, that he has 
donated its use to the United States, or in 
anywise abandoned his invention." 

Under this decision, Mr. Hubbell 
was awarded and received a handsome 
sum from the Government ; but Con- 
gress having limited the power of the 



Court, lie did not receive his entire 
claim. 

These inventions sunk the Alabama 
in the British Channel ; her English 
shells failed ; but Hubbell's, fired by 
the Kearsarge, exploded in the sides of 
the Alabama, and sent her to the bot- 
tom. 

He claims ^200,000 from Congress, 
before which the claim is pending, 
with Reports in both Houses in his 
favor. The Union owes him a debt 
of gratitude for these inventions. 

William Wheeler Hubbell, m. Eliza- 
beth Catharine Ramillie, of Charleston, 
S. C, dau. of Paul and Mary (Whit- 
ley,) Dec. 14, 1848, and has issue liv- 
ing : Walter, Lawrence, Eleanor, Al- 
bert, lilizabeth, and Paul R. Paul 
Ramillie was the son of Paul, the 
son of Christopher. The family was 
amongst the earliest settlers of South 
Carolina. The aged grand-parents 
live with them in Philadelphia. 

Richard Henry Hubbell, his bro- 
ther, now Superintendent of the Jack- 
son Steel Casting Works, at Allegheny 
City, Pa., residence, Chester,;;/. Char- 
lotte Morton, dau. of Aaron and Eliza- 
beth (Coburn, ) of Lower Chichester, 
and have issue: Marietta, Truman, 
Ida Francis, William, Samuel, Mor- 
ton, and Lottie. 

United States Patents were recently 
granted to William Wheeler and Rich- 
ard Henry Hubbell, for Improvements 
in Refining Cast Iron, which iron, 
tested at the Navy Yard, Washington, 
gave the unparalleled tensile strength 
of 60,958 pounds to the square inch. 

XLVIII. 

The following old certificate and re- 
turn of election of members of the As- 
sembly, is copied from Document No. 



440 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



27, of the Logan Papers, \ol. V, en- 
dorsed J^oads, in the Historical So- 
ciety of Pennsylvania, \iz: 

This Indenture made the fust day of Oeto- 
ber in the seventh year of the Reign of Queen 
Annie over England &c Anno Domi 1708, Be- 
tween John Iloskins Sheriff of the County of 
Chester of the one ^te and Caleb Pusey, Na- 
thaniel Newland, Nicholas Pyle, Jacob Sim- 
cock, Randall Varnam, Aaron James of the 
other ^te witnesseth that whereas by virtue of 
a Charter of Priviledge to the Inhabitants and 
fifreeholders of the Province of Pennsilvania 
Granted by the Monble William Penn, Esq"", 
Propty &c Goven'' of the same. The fifree- 
holders and Inhabitants of the borough & Coun- 
ty of Chester on the first day of this instant 
October did meet at the usual place of meeting 
at Chester in this county afores<i and there by a 
free Poll Did Elect & choose Danll Williamson, 
Samuel Levis, Henry lewis, Richard Hayes, 
John Hood, Thomas Pearson, Will Bartram, 
Daniel Hoopes x x x x to be their Representa- 
tives in Genii Assembly and at the s'J election 
they the s^ Representatives had notice to at- 
tend the Govern'' at Philadelphia on the four- 
teenth instant. In witnesse whereof as well 
the Sheriff as the aforesaid to these present In- 
dentures have Interchangably sett their hands 
& seals the day and year first above written. 
Caleb Pusey, [l. s.] 

Natha. Newlin, [l. s.] 
Nicholas Pyle, [l. s.] 

Jacob Simcock, [l. S.] 

Randall Varnon, [l. s.] 
Aaron James, [l. s.] 

John Iloskins, Sheriff, [l. s.] 

The following is a list of the mem- 
bers of the Legislature of Pennsylvania 
who have represented Delaware Coun- 
ty since i860, and the publication of 
Dr. Smith's Histo7-y\ 

SUNATU. 

Jacob S. Scrrill, i860 to 1864 

Dr. Wilmer Worthington, . . . 1864 " 1869 

H. Jones Brooke, 1869 " 1873 

William B. Waddell, .... 1863 " 1874 

Thomas V. Cooper, .... 1874 " 1879 

House of Representatives. 

William Gamble, 1861 " 1862 

Chalkley Harvey, 1863 

Edward A. Price, Esq., . . 1864 

Elwood Tyson, 1S65 " 1S6C 

John H. Barton, 1867 



Aiigiislus H. Lccdom, , 


. 1868 to 1869 


Thomas V. Cooper, 


. 1870 


Tryon Lewis, . . . . 


. — 1871 


Thomas V. Cooper, 


. 1872 


Orson Flagg Bullard, . 


. 1S73 


Col. William Cooper Talley, 


. 1874 " 1877 


William Worrall, . . . . 


. 1875 " 1877 


Orson Flagg Bullard, 


• 1877 •' 1879 


Young S. Walter, . . . . 


. 1877 " 1879 



In Dr. Smith' s History, John Ed- 
wards, Esq., is given as a member of 
the House in i837-'8, instead of John 
K. Zeilin, Esq. John Edwards was a 
member of Congress. 

The Representatives in Congress, by 
the adoption of the Constitution of the 
United States of 1 788, are chosen every 
second year by the.people, in the man- 
ner to be determined by the Legisla- 
ture of the States. The number of 
members being fixed every ten years by 
Congress. 

The Representatives of the first Con- 
gress were elected on a general ticket. 
For those of the second, the State was 
divided into Districts ; Delaware Coun- 
ty being in the first with Philadelphia 
City. See Act 16 March, 1 791. The 
members of the third Congress were 
elected on a general ticket. In 1794, 
Act of April II, the State was again 
districted, Chester and Delaware con- 
stituting the third, with one member. 
By Act of April 2, 1802, another di- 
vision was made, Delaware and Phila- 
delphia forming the first district, with 
three members. The Act of Mar. 12, 
1 81 2, gave the same district with four 
members. The Act of April 22, 1822, 
formed Delaware, Chester and Lancas- 
ter into a (fourth) district, with three 
members. The Act of June 9, 1832, 
made no change in the district. Act 
of 1842, formed Delaware and Mont- 
gomery into a Congressional district, 
the sixth. Act of 1852, made Chester 
and Delaware the sixth district, with 
one member ; since then there has been 
no change. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



447 



The following is a list of the Repre- 
sentatives in Congress who have repre- 
sented the county. 

Navies of members. Term of service. 

First Congress — General ticket, . - 1789 to 1791 

Thomas Fitzsimmohs, .... 1791 " 1793 

General ticket, from .... 1793 " 1795 

John Richards, 1795 " 1797 

Richard Thomas,* .... 1797 " 1801 

Joseph Hemphill, • . . . . . 1801 " 1803 

Jacob Richards, ..... 1803 " 1809 

William Anderson, .... 1809 " 1815 

Thomas Smith, 1815 " 1817 

William Anderson, .... 1817 " 1819 

Samuel Edwards, ..... 1819 " 1827 

Dr. Samuel Anderson, .... 1827 " 1829 

George Gray Leiper, .... 1829 " 1831 

Joshua Evans,t "k 

David Potts, Jr.,t V . . . . 1831 " 1833 

William Heister, i 

Edward Darlington, .... 1833 " 1839 

John Edwards, 1839 •' 1843 

Francis James,t 1843 " 1^45 

Jacob S. Yost:!:, 1845 " 1847 

John Friedleyf, ..... 1847 " '851 

John McNair:!:, 1851 " 1853 

William Everhart,t .... 1853 " 1855 

John Hickman,! 1855 " 1863 

John M. Broomall, .... 1863 " 1869 

Washington Townsend,t . . . 1869 " 1877 

William Ward, 1877 ' 

Joseph Hemphill, member from iSoi 
to 1 803 , was a native of Delaware Coun- 
ty. He was President Judge of the 
District Court of Philadelphia, from 
May6, 1811, toOct. I, 1818. Repre- 
sentative in Congress from Philadel- 
phia, from 1819 to 1827 and from 1829 
to- 1 83 1, and died in that city May 29, 
1842, aged 72 years. 

At the election in 1 830, for the XXH. 
Congress, there were seven candidates ; 
three to be elected from Delaware, 
Chester and Lancaster. It was during 
this time that the excitement about 
Masonry ran so high in Philadelphia. 

*The Congressional Directory '^■^\-i Richard 
Thomas was Representative from 1795 to 1801. 
If not an error, then probably John Richards 
represented Bucks, where the family had a 
large estate. 

f Elected from Chester County. 

\ From Montgomery County. Heister \\as 
from Lancaster County, and Fitzsimmonsa dis- 
tinguished member of the Philadelphia Bar, 
from that city. 



None of the Delaware County men 
were elected. The names of the candi- 
dates and the votes received by each at 
that contest are : Joshua Evans, 8150; 
William Heister, 8471; David Potts, 
Jr., 7930 ; Samuel Boyd, 7643; Archi- 
bald T. Dick, 5994; Edward Darling- 
ton, 7918; John Edwards, 2403. The 
three latter were Delaware County law- 
yers. It will be observed that Potts 
led Darlington only 12 votes. 

Coroners of Chester County. 

James Kennedy, 1685 

Jacob Symcock, 1691 

Jonas Sandilands, .... i7i7toi72i 

Robert Barber, ..... 1721 

John-Mendenhall, i726toi728 

Robert Parke, 1728 

Abraham Darlington, .... 1729 

John Wharton, 1730101732 

Anthony Shaw, ..... 1732 to 1734 

John Wharton, ..... 1734101737 

Stephen Hoskins, ..... 1737 

Aubrey Bevan, 1738 to 1743 

Thomas Morgan, ..... i743toi746 

Isaac Lea, ...... i746toi75i 

Joshua Thomson, 1751 

John Kerlin, ...... 1752 

Joshua Thomson, 1753101762 

Phillip Ford, 1762 

Davis Bevan, 1763, 1764 

Abel Janney, 1765 

John Trapnall, ..... 1766, 1767 

Joseph Gibbons, ..... 1768 

Joseph Gibbons, Jr., .... 1769, 1770 

John Crosby, Jr., ..... 1771, 1772 

John Bryan, 1773101776 

David Denny, 1778, 1779 

Allen Cunningham, .... 1780, 1781 

Benjamin Rue, ..... 1782 

John Harper, 1783, 1784 

Isaac Thomas, 1785 

John Harper, 1786 

John Underwood, .... 1787, 1788 

Nathan Schofield, 1789 

Delaware County. 

Jonathan Vernon, ..... 1789 

Caleb Bennett, 1790 

Seth Thomas, ..... 1S51 

Washington B. Levis, . . in office, 1863 

Wm. Anderson Minshall, . in office, 1876 

The history of the efforts made to 
furnish Chester with water is eventful 
and interesting. Before the commence- 
ment of operations by the present Cor- 
poration, the sole dependence of the 
people for water was in wells, and 
in rain cisterns and barrels, except in 



448 



UISTORY OF CHESTER. 



cases where it was procured l)y the la- 
borious process of carrying it from the 
river or creek. The water obtained 
by the first mentioned means was to 
most persons distasteful, and deemed 
unfit for culinary, cleaning and me- 
chanical purposes. For twelve or fif- 
teen years prior to the incorporation 
of Chester as a city, the increase in its 
population, number of dwellings and 
business establishments had been such 
as to place her in the front rank of 
thriving towns; and yet there was no 
place, it may be confidently asserted, 
that was in a worse condition in regard 
to the essential of water for household 
and manufacturing purposes. That 
this was felt to be so, is evidenced by 
the attempt made about 1853, to estab- 
lish a private Water Company, which 
failed, however, but a meager subscrip- 
tion of a few thousand dollars to the 
capital stock being made. 

The question of a proper water sup- 
ply was, therefore, one that rose above 
mere considerations of revenue, or 
private profit to stockholders in cor- 
porations, and that appealed to the 
public authorities as a sanitary and 
police regulation that should be inau- 
gurated and conducted for the health 
and convenience of the people, and 
the protection of their property in times 
of fire, without regard to the question 
of profit or loss ; that the safety and 
comfort of the community, rich and 
poor, were considerations superior to 
the matter of pecuniary returns. In 
this view, an Act of Assembly was, in 
April, 1866, obtained, which gave the 
city power to establish Water Works, 
provided an assessed majority of the 
jjroperty holders voted in favor of rati- 
fying the i)rovisions of the Act. A 
sj)ecial election was held for the purpose 
of ascertuinini,^ the views of those quali- 



fied by the Act to vote, which resulted 
in two of the three Wards of the City 
deciding adversely to the measure, and 
the law, of course, became inoperative. 

But the want still existed; and as 
the city extended, and was being more 
compactly built, the danger from fire 
increased, and rendered it imperative 
that some action should be taken at 
once that should secure the great de- 
sideratum. On the 2d of March, 1867, 
the Legislature passed an Act giving 
the " Councilmen of the South Ward of 
the City of Chester, and their successors 
i n office, ' ' power to erect Water Works, 
under which the present works were con- 
structed. The original Water Board, 
as organized thereunder, consisted of 
the following members of the Council 
of the city of Chester, representing the 
South Ward, namely : Amos Gartside, 
President; William Ward, Treasurer ; 
William A. Todd, Secretary; William 
B. Reaney, George Derbyshire and 
William G. Price. The acceptance of 
the Act and formal organization of the 
Board took place April 15, 1867, and 
immediate steps were taken to furnish 
the city with water. 

After careful investigation, and the 
examination of many suggested sources 
of supply, it was decided to use the 
water of the river Delaware, it being 
deemed as beyond doubt, the purest, 
most abundant, as well as the surest 
source from which to furnish the people 
of Chester. On this subject as well as 
on all others relating to the enterprise, 
the Board availed themselves of the 
eminent ability and advice of Chief 
Engineer Frederick Graeff, and Isaac 
S. Cassin, late Chief Engineer of Phila- 
delphia. The last named was selected 
to prepare plans and specifications, and 
to supervise the construction of the 
works. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



449 



On Aug. I, 1867, in response to ad- 
vertisements of the Board, proposals 
for the construction of the Works were 
received from five different firms ; the 
lowest bidders, Armstrong, Gartside & 
Co. , received the contract. The water 
was pumped into the basin of the Re- 
servoir for the first time on the evening 
of July I, 1868. The cofitract of the 
above firm was completed in the month 
of October following, and the works, 
after a professional inspection by Chief 
Engineer Graeff, accepted by the Board. 
See Introduction to the Reports of the 
Secretary and Ti-easurer of the Chester 
Water Works ,\r\\\\.^^ in 1872. 

The Reservoir of the Water Works 
is situated on what was formerly a por- 
tion of the farm of Walter C. Lytle, 
on Concord Avenue, about one mile 
from the pumping machinery, at the 
foot of Fulton Street. It stands at an 
altitude of something over 100 feet 
above high water mark of the Dela- 
ware. The organization of the Board 
of Managers at present (1872), is Amos 
Gartside, President; William A. Todd, 
Secretary; Henry C. Eyre, Superin- 
tendent; William G. Price, George 
Derbyshire, Geo. Robinson. 

On June 6, 1869, a shower of shells 
fell at Chester during a rain storm, the 
following account of which was given 
at a meeting of the Acadamy of Natu- 
ral Sciences, held at Philadelphia, Oct. 
7, 1869. American Journal of Con- 
chology, (new series) vol. 5, p. 118. 

" Mr. John Ford exhibited specimens of a 
Getnma-gemma, Totten, remarkable for having 
fallen during a storm which occurred at Ches- 
ter, Pa., June 6, 1869. These specimens were 
apparently adult, though very minute, measur- 
ing i^ of an inch in length, 3-i6ths of an inch 
in breadth. Mr. F. stated, that he had made 
inquiry of several gentlemen who had wit- 
nessed the storm on the occasion referred to, 
and that the answers of each of them had so 



corroborated those of the others, as to leave no 
doubt on his mind as to their having fallen in 
immense numbers. Though most of them 
were in a broken condition, large numbers of 
perfect ones were collected in various places 
sheltered from the heavy rain which followed 
their descent. One of the gentlemen referred 
to, Y. S. Walter, Esq., editor of The Delaware 
County Republican, published at Chester, as- 
sured Mr. F. that he noticed the singular charac- 
ter of the storm at its very commencement, 
'and,' to use his own words, 'it appeared like 
a storm within a storm, a very tine rain falling 
rapidly, veiled by the shells, which fell slower 
and with a whirling motion.' Judging from 
the remains of animal matter attached to some 
of the specimens, together with the fresh ap- 
pearance of the epidermis, it is highly probable 
that many of them were living at the moment 
of transition." 

The Chester Library Company, was 
established Feb. 14, 1769, when ac- 
cording to the records of the Company, 
"A number of the most considerable 
inhabitants of the Borough of Chester, 
having from time to time had in con- 
sideration the good consequences that 
would result from the erection of a 
Public Library in said Borough, for the 
promotion of useful knowledge, did at 
length proceed to enter into articles for 
the forming themselves into a com- 
mittee for that purpose ; agreeable to 
which article they met on the loth of 
May, A. D., 1769, in order to pay in 
the sum of money proposed to be ad- 
vanced by each member, and to elect 
and choose proper officers for the more 
effectual carrying their designs into ex- 
ecution, at which time were chosen: 
Directors, Henry Hale Graham, Elisha 
Price, David Jackson, Thomas Moore ; 
Treasurer, Thomas Sharpless; Secre- 
tary, Peter Steel. The Company com- 
menced with 163 volumes. The num- 
ber of books at present in the Library 
is about 2000. Nearly all the standard 
works of the day are purchased annual- 
ly, and the collection is perhaps equal 



450 



HISTORY UF ClIESTEH. 



to tliat of aii\- otlKT lilirar)- outside of 
large cities. The present officers are: 
President, Joshua P. Eyre. Directors, 
Alexander M. Wright, John O. De- 
shong, James Cochran, Frederick J. 
Hinkson, John H. Baker. Treasurer, 
Job Rulon. Secretary, Y . S. Walter." 
Directory, iS^g-'6o, p. 47. 

The above account is somewhat rose- 
colored. When I resided in Chester, 
very little interest was taken in the Li- 
brary by the grown up people of the 
town. The books were deposited in a 
room over the. old Market House, now 
torn down, which was built for the pur- 
pose of a Town Hall, in 1830. My father 
was the Secretary or Librarian, at least 
he had charge of the room and the books, 
and when any one came for a volume, 
I was sent over with the keys to attend 
to them. It thus became my playroom, 
and it was there I learned first to take 
an interest in old books. The boys 
used the place for a meeting room, and 
we formed an institution called "The 
Chester Lyceum," and got together a 
collection of coins, minerals, old In- 
dian arrow heads, stone axes, stone pots, 
stone skinners, corn grinders or pestles, 
&c. Capt. Isaac E. Engle, gave us 
some Chinese and other East India 
curiosities. John K. Zeilin, says he 
deposited the gold, silver and copper 
coins. The gold and silver coins were 
stolen; the copper coins Mr. Zeilin has 
in his possession. What became of the 
rest of the curiosities I do not know. 
We had quite a respectable museum. I 
remember that Lewis Ladomus, Henry 
and Samuel Edwards, Harry Porter, 
Edward Eyre, and my brother Wil- 
liam, were members of the Society. My 
friend Joseph M. Cardeza, the ticket 
agent of the Philadelphia, Wilmington 
(S: Baltimore Railroad Co., at Philadel- 
phia, who is so well known to alt the 



travelling community of Delaware 
County, has a splendid collection of 
the implements of the stone age of the 
United States. 

The Library, notwithstanding its 
venerable age, does not seem to im- 
prove in usefulness, nor in the num- 
ber of its collection of books, nor is 
much interest taken in its affairs even 
yet; if I may judge from the follow- 
ing notice in X\\q Republican of Friday, 
Jan. 20, 1871 : 

" A meeting of a number of the stocklioklcrs 
of the Chester Library Company — one of Ihe 
oldest in the State — was held on Tuesday even- 
ing last. Measures were taken to have the 
Library permanently located, and otherwise to 
improve its condition.; and committees ap- 
pointed to inquire into financial affairs, to select 
a Librarian, and to adopt means for its future 
efticiency. These committees will report to 
an adjourned meeting, to be held at the office 
of the Managers of the Farmers' Market Co., 
on Tuesday evening next, at 7 o'clock, at which 
it is earnestly desired that the stockholders 
should all be present." 

This action was taken in consequence 
of a paragraph in a former number of 
the Republican calling attention to the 
condition of the Library, and the dan- 
ger in which the books were of being 
lost in an insecure and neglected situa- 
tion. 

In the same Journal of Jan. 27, 1871, 
will be found the following further in- 
teresting information concerning the 
Library Company of Chester : 

"On the 14th of Feb. 1769, a number of the 
citizens of Chester assembled together, and 
formed a Library Company. They set forth 
in the preamble to the articles liy which they 
were to be governed, that 'being truly sensible 
of the advantage that may arise to the people 
of the County of Chester from the erection of 
a Lil)rary for the advancement of knowledge 
and literature, we do hereby agree to jilace to- 
gether, each one of us; the sum of thirty shill- 
ings, wherewith to form a joint slock for the 
]nirchnsing niid collecting of useful books to 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



451 



cuiiipose a library in tlie Borough of Chester, 
in the County of Chester;' and in article XI 
of the Constitution or rules, they resolve ' to 
continue in partnership and hold the Library 
of books and effects, tme /uiudred years' The 
men who first established the Libraiy, have, 
of course, all passed away, and their successors 
from time to time, have endeavored to carry 
out the object of the original projectors. Dur- 
ing the war of the Revolution, the company 
held no meeting for several years, and while 
the war of 1812 was progressing, a hiatus also 
occurs in the minutes of the Secretary. The 
stockholders of the present company, in 1840, 
applied for an act of incorporation, and in 
March of that year, an act was obtained, chang- 
ing the title from the Library Company of Ches- 
ter, to that of ' The Chester Library Company.' 
The charter conferred a few powers not set forth 
in the original 'rules' of the old organization. 
At that time the Library contained seven hun- 
dred and thirteen volumes. From 1840 until 
1 86 1, the company kept up its organization, 
and added yearly quite a number of volumes 
to its collection. During the e.xciting times 
consequent upon the Slaveholders' Rebellion, 
and, until within a short time, the meetings 
of the stockholders have been irregular and 
sparsely attended, and many of the books have 
become scattered. A united effort is now be- 
ing made by the remaining stockholders to 
place the company once more upon its original 
footing, and to collect the books and property, 
and deposit them in a convenient and secure 
place. Through the courtesy of the Managers 
of the Farmers' Market Company, a convenient 
room has been rented, a Librarian selected, and 
in the course of a few days, the Librai-y will 
be removed thereto, and the room opened to 
the shareholders. 

At a meeting held on Tuesday evening last, 
the stockholders agreed, that upon the pay- 
ment by any member, on or before the first 
day of May next, of the sum of three dollars, 
all back dues and forfeitures on each share of 
stock for arrearages, shall be remitted. And 
in order to collect the works which have been 
taken without permission from the Library, 
the oflficers were instructed to institute legal 
proceedings without delay, against the seve- 
ral persons who have in their possession books 
belonging to the company, unless they are re- 
turned, within one month from the present 



time, to Mr. Levis, Librarian, at the Farmers' 
Market, in Fourth street. 

The effort now being made to resuscitate 
the Library, seems to be an earnest one : and 
it remains for the stockholders to prove, by 
their efforts to obtain additional members, and 
thus increase and extend its usefulness, whether 
it will be successful." 

I have a reverence for ancient things, 
and regret e.xtremely the change made 
by the act of March, 1840, in the 
name of the old Library Company of 
Chester. It is a pity that those en- 
gaged in that change did not expend 
their energies in a way more beneficial 
to the interests of the Library. 

At an annual meeting of the mem- 
bers of the Library Company on the 
evening of May 10, 1871, an election 
was held for officers for the following 
year, which resulted in the choice 
of Joshua P. Eyre, for President; 
Caleb Emlen, for Secretary; Walter C. 
Lytle, for Treasurer; and Y. S. Wal- 
ter, James Barton, Jr., John O. De- 
shong, William Hinkson and Thomas 
Moore, Directors. 

The Treasurers of the Library Com- 
pany since its formation have been : 

1769, Thomas Sharpless. 
Isaac Eyre. 
Henry Hale Graliam. 
Davis Bevan. 
William Pennell. 

1799, James Withey. 

1809, Williani Graham. 

1822, Preston Eyre. 

1836, Samuel Lytle. 

1857, Job Rulon. 

i860, Walter C. Lytle. 

At the annual meeting. May 27, 
1873, Y. S. Walter was elected Presi- 
dent; Caleb Emlen, &(:;r/«rj'/ Walter 
C. Lytle, Treasurer; John O. De- 
shong, James Barton, Jr., Thomas 
Moore, Henry B. Edwards, Esq., and 



1773. 
1774, 
1789, 

1797. 



452 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



Calel) luiilcn. Directors. I regret that 
I ha\c no list of the successive Presi- 
dents and Secretaries. 

This is not the oldest library com- 
pany in Delaware County. The Darby 
Library Company was founded in 1 743, 
and in 1871, the company was in a 
sufficiently prosperous condition to 
erect a very neat and handsome build- 
ing for the accommodation of its lib- 
rary, to which is added a Hall, in which 
to give lectures and other refined en- 
tertainments. It is to be hoped that 
the Chester Library Co. will soon fol- 
low this good example. 

There is in Chester an association 
composed of the young men of the 
place, called the Pacific Dramatic 
Association. For what especial pur- 
pose they are organized I do not know, 
but they give each year a series of en- 
tertainments, at the Tuscarora and 
National Halls, which are well at- 
tended by the citizens. I copy from 
the Republican, two notices which 
will give an idea of the purposes of 
the Pacific Literary Association, for it 
is called by both names, in the paper 
referred to so often in these sketches, 
and which is really the historical re- 
cord of Delaware County. The first 
notice, on May 20, 1870, says: 

The meml)crs of this Association have given 
the public, during the present week, a sjDeci- 
men of their dramatic talent by the perform- 
ance of Uncle TonCs Cabin. The entertain- 
ment, was in every respect, far superior to 
anything of the kind ever before attempted by 
an amateur company in this city. On Tues- 
day and Wednesday evenings, every seat in 
National Hall was taken at an early hour, the 
audience l)eing largely composed of the first 
citizens of this place and its vicinity. The 
piece was well cast, and the performers all 
accjuitted themselves in the best possible man- 
ner. Uncle Tom, rendered by Mr. Powell; 
St. Clair, by Mr. (iovett; T.egrec, liy Mr. 
Miller; an.l (k-orge Harris, by Mr. 1 Iar|iur, 



merited and received a full share of apiilause. 
The part of Eva, as performed by little Miss 
Carter, was admirably sustained, and won for 
her high encomiums of praise from all. Eliza 
and 0])helia — the former represented by Miss 
Claire, and the latter by Miss Seymour, were 
capital, while Topsy, in the hands of Miss 
Courtney, was a specimen of excellent acting. 
All connected with the representation of this 
beautiful piece did well, and deserve credit 
for furnishing our citizens with an entertain- 
ment worthy of their support." 

The other, on Feb. 24, 1871, says 
of the Pacific Dramatic Association : 

" The members of this excellent Association 
have been giving a series of entertainments at 
National Hall, during the present ^\•eek. The 
plays enacted have been the comic drama of 
Handy Andy, and the comedy of Toodlcs. 
The leading character in the former was ably 
personated by G. M. Foster, while Squire 
Egan was personified by Mr. Govett, whose 
idea of an Irish gentleman was well conceived 
and capitally expressed. The other charac- 
ters in the piece were represented by E. L. 
Powell, W. S. Miller, Wm. P. Ladomus, \Vm. 
W. Ross, J. H. Ladomus, E. C. Starr, Miss 
Lizzie Conaway, Miss Lizzie Gilbert, and Miss 
Fitzgerald, all of whom were well versed in 
their parts, and performed with good taste 
and judgment. To-night the moral drama of 
the Ticket-of- Leave-Man will be performed, 
and we are informed by those who have at- 
tended the rehearsals of the Association, that 
something excellent may be expected. We 
congratulate the members on the success of 
their efforts, and hope they may reap a rich 
harvest to-night, and continue to give our citi- 
zens, from time to time, such entertainments 
as those which have afforded them so much 
satisfaction during the present week." 

There is also another kindred asso- 
ciation in Chester, formed from a 
division among the members of the 
Pacific, called the " Shakespeare Dra- 
matic Association," whose members 
boast, that it was the first Company 
who ever produced at a public enter- 
tainment the plays of the immortal 
bard, in tlie town. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



453 



XLIX. 

l-ii \.\\e J^cpiib/ican, of Jan. 20, 1871, 
the editor says, under the heading of 
A Day Home for Children : 

" In our two previous issues we referred to 
the need for a Day Home for the children of 
such poor people as are obliged to leave their 
offspring with incompetent persons, or wholly 
alone, while they go to their day's toil. We 
have before stated their cause, and we now 
plead for the little ones. There are many 
mothers compelled to work all day to get bread 
for themselves and their families — compelled 
to leave their children, sometimes two or three 
mere infants, to care, as best as they can, for 
each other. We plead for them, that infancy 
and childhood may not be exposed to such 
suffering and death. We plead for them in 
the name of humanity and mercy. Will not 
those whom God has blessed and put beyond 
the necessities and deprivations of the poor, 
lend a helping hand, and thereby earn the 
blessing of Him 'that considereth the poor?' 
It is a small draft upon our benefactions that 
is demanded. Wilmington supports y^^r kin- 
dred institutions ; and shall we refuse one ? 
Who will lead off in this blessed work, and 
thus secure the noble offering already pledged 
for it ? Could we have the ear of wealthy 
and influential ladies, we would plead with 
them by every motive of humanity and reli- 
gion, to enter at once upon this work, and 
rear an institution, lasting as our pity for the 
sufferings of humanity." 

On the 26th, a meeting of the ladies 
of Chester was held in the lecture room 
of St. Paul's Church, for the purpose 
of forming a Nursery, or Infants' 
Home, as suggested, and an organiza- 
tion was effected by the election of 
the following officers: President, Mrs. 
Joseph H. Hinkson ; Vice- President, 
Miss Elizabeth Kerlin, (daughter of 
the late William Kerlin ;) Secretary, 
Mrs. George Hood ; Treasurer, Mrs. 
Job Rulon. A committee was ap- 
pointed to solicit contributions, con- 
sisting of Mrs. Joseph Ladomus, Mrs. 
Ale.xander Worrall, Mrs. John Coch- 



ran, Mrs. Joseph Engle, Mrs. James 
Stephens, Mrs. James Barton, and 
Miss Mary Rice. Miss Kerlin and 
Mrs. Reece, were appointed a com- 
mittee on room, matron, &c. Sub- 
sequently a Home was located at the 
corner of Third and Edgmont Avenue, 
with ample room in the house where the 
little ones could be made comfortable, 
and on February 13, the Institution 
was opened, and children were to be 
received under the following rules: 
" Children can be left at the Home at 
any time after 6^ o'clock, A. M., 
and will be taken care of by a capa- 
ble and responsible matron. At noon, 
a wholesome meal will be given. The 
charge for each child will be five cents 
per day, to be paid by the parents on 
taking them again at night, after work- 
ing hours." I am informed that the 
poor were too independent to avail 
themselves of the kindness of the ladies, 
and the project had to be abandoned. 
The idea of such a Home is not, 
however, by any means a new one in 
this country. From my History of 
''Bethlehem a?id the Moravians," I 
copy the following article in reference 
to the 'Nursery," that existed in that 
town, in the early days of its settle- 
ment, about 1755. Mrs. Friday says : 
"The Nursery was an institution which 
was formed by the necessity of circum- 
stances. The great amount of labor 
to be done in the building of houses, 
clearing the lands, farming, procuring 
building materials, &c., besides keep- 
ing constant watch day and night, (on 
account of the Indians,) made it ne- 
cessary that every means should be 
taken to bring all the resources of the 
inhabitants to bear. The females could 
assist in farming, such as rake hay, 
spread grass, plant and hoe potatoes 
and corn, load hay, husk corn, &:c.. 



454 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



but motliers were prevented by their 
children. A Nursery was thereupon 
institutetl, where children two years of 
age were taken and raised under the 
supervision of the church. To this in- 
stitution many objections were found; 
it did not work as w-ell as desired, and 
as soon as the -.'Economy was abolish- 
ed (having things in common), the 
institution was discontinued. It must 
be said, however, that although the 
children so raised had not the mater- 
nal affections, as those raised by the 
mother, yet some of the best citizens 
Bethlehem ever had were so brought 
up." 

The Directory of Chester, 1859-60, 
says of the Normal School : 

" From the town may be seen this institu- 
tion upon a commanding eminence, and it 
seems to be so identified with the interests of 
the place, though Init a short distance from 
the borough line, as to demand noti ce. From 
a distance the beholder can readily recognize 
its noble front looming upon his sight, 200 
feet in length and 100 feet deep upon the 
wings. Upon each story a broad hall runs 
the entire length of the building; and its re- 
citation rooms, library, lecture rooms, parlors, 
dormitories and eating-room, denote the most 
complete and ample accommodations for 200 
students. It is built of the gneis rock of the 
vicinity, and is at once a fine architectural pile 
w ith artistic proportions, and strong massive 
appearance. The .shrubbery and trees on the 
lawn around it are not yet full grown, but the 
observant eye can at once perceive, that it must 
become one of the most beautiful and delight- 
ful spots that could attract the footsteps of the 
student, or challenge his veneration and re- 
gard. From the observatory on the central 
building, the far distant hills of New Jersey 
can be viewed, rounded into the dark blue hazy 
outline, so charming to the eye of the artist, 
whilst within a nearer view the broad Dela- 
ware sweeps its gleaming current until lost to 
the vision : its bosom fanned by many a flow- 
ing sail, [the wind is more apt to do that, 
however.] The entire scene is instinct with 
life and grandeur, and beams w ith all the fit- 
ful feelings of a poetic life. 



This massive structure was erected a few 
years since at a cost of $50,000, by John V. 
Crozer, and it must ever be an honoraliie 
monument, far above heraldic blazonry, or the 
renown of battle fields, to the memory of its 
founder, not only by its power to defy for 
centuries the destructive hands of time, but in 
sending forth to the world those who shall 
mould the human mind for all the best pur- 
poses of life. Such a memorial of true use- 
fulness will endure when all other renown will 
have outlived human applause, and the name 
of Crozer deservedly live as long as its stately 
walls endure. This was the second institution 
built by Mr. Crozer ; the Academy upon Se- 
cond Street, a very finely proportioned building 
of brick, capable of accommodating a large 
number of students, and being an embellish- 
ment to that quarter of the town, was erected 
by him several years previous to the Normal 
School. Mr. Crozer has done well for pos- 
terity." 

Gen. Davis, in \\\s History of Bucks 
County, p. 109, says: The Croziers are 
descended from Huguenot ancestors, 
reared in the Presbyterian faith. They 
emigrated from France to Scotland 
about 1700, thence to county Antrim, 
Ireland, and about 1723, five brothers, 
Andrew, Robert, James, John and Sam- 
uel came to America ; Andrew settled 
in New Jersey, but removed to Bucks 
County, Pa., in 1758, &:c. * * Of the 
other brothers who came to America, 
Robert settled in Philadelphia, James, 
John and Samuel in Delaware County, 
wdiere John P., a grandson of James, 
lately deceased, at the age of 75 years. 

John P. Crozer was born at West- 
dale, the birth-place of Benjamin West, 
the celebrated painter, Jan. 13, 1793, 
and married Sallie L. Knowles, March 
12, 1825, and died at his residence at 
Upland, March 11, 1866. Mr. Cro- 
zer laid the foundation of his fortune, 
as a cotton manufacturer, near Lenni \ 
but removed to (Richard) Flower's 
Mills many years ago, erected there a 
superb mansion, splendid cotton fac- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



455 



tories, and a town for his employees, 
and died the possessor of large means. 
He was a short, well-built man, re- 
served in manner, and reticent in 
speech; his face was full of firmness 
and determination. My father and 
he were life-long and warm friends ; 
but he was a modest man, and I will 
not write the many kind things about 
him I would like to, because others 
have been free in their praises of a 
good and useful citizen. Mr. Crozer 
left a large and estimable family of 
sons and daughters. 

By the records of Chester Monthly 
Meeting we learn that Esther Gleave, 
(born lo mo. lo, 1712,) daughter of 
John and Elizabeth, was married as 
early as 1730 to John Crosier, and 
joined the Presbyterians. Her sister 
Rachel, (born 8 mo. 8, 1715,) made 
acknowledgment, i mo. 27, 1738, for 
marriage " by a priest" to James Cro- 
sier, and retained her membership. In 
1773 and '4 her daughters, Sarah, 
Elizabeth, Rachel, Martha, Esther and 
Rebecca were received into member- 
ship by Friends. Susanna Woodward, 
of Springfield Meeting, was disowned 
in 1737, for her marriage to Robert 
Crosier. 

On 4 mo. 15, 1773, Sarah Crozier, 
daughter of James, of Springfield, 
married JohnOgden of the same place. 
Elizabeth Crozier, dau. of James and 
Rachel, ;//. John Birchall, 9 mo. 13, 
1792, and Martha, another daughter 
of James and Rachel Crozier, deceas- 
ed, married Rumford Dawes. 6 mo. 2, 
1814, all of Springfield. 

The building denominated the Nor- 
mal School, is now known as "Cro- 
zer Theological Seminary," and is 
under the charge~of the Baptists, in 
accordance with the terms of Mr. Cro- 
zer's will, I believe. 



It is pleasant to go back to old times ! 
Conversing recently with Mr. Richard 
S. Smith, President of the Union Mu- 
tual Insurance Co., of Philadelphia, 
whose country seat is at Lenni, in 
Delaware County, with which he has 
been identified since 1833, he related 
the following incident in his life that 
has many points of interest in it, ap- 
plicable to this work. He said : "In 
the year 1808, when I was 19 years of 
age, I was a clerk in a well-known 
'China House.' At that time it was 
customary, as soon as a ship was load- 
ed, to dispatch her at once down the 
rivqr to New Castle. Her stores and 
clearance papers were sent to her then 
by a sailing packet. The ship Tigress, 
for China, had dropped down to New 
Castle, having her supercargo on board, 
and the Packet Avith her stores had just 
sailed, when it was discovered that her 
supercargo had left his bills of lading 
and letter of instructions at the count- 
ing-house. Mr. McKean said to me : 
' Richard, go hire a horse and take 
these papers down to the supercargo 
of the Tigress. He would be much 
embarrassed if he should get to sea 
without them. You will get to New 
Castle as soon as the Packet, if you 
ride sharp. ' I was not much of a rider, 
but I went to a livery stable on my 
father's property, in Lombard St., near 
4th, and got a horse, a sorry stumbling 
brute. He kept on the sidewalk near- 
ly all the way out Lombard St. ; how- 
ever, I managed to get to Chester about 
one o'clock, P. M., and stopped at the 
tavern kept^3y Major Anderson, and 
got my horse fed. The hotel dinner 
was over, but the Major asked me to 
dine with his family. At the table I no- 
ticed qui tea handsome young lady, who 
read a novel all the time we were at 
dinner. She was the Major's daugh- 



456 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



tcr, and afterwards became the wife of 
the celebrated Commodore David Por- 
ter. Soon after dinner I left Chester 
for Wilmington. On my way I grew 
careless and neglected to keep a taut 
rein on my horse, so he stumbled and 
fell on his knees, throwing me over 
his head into the road. The shock was 
so severe that the money in my waist- 
coat pocket was scattered over the 
road, and I was so stunned, that when I 
get on the animal again, and had ridden 
some distance and had time to recover 
my wits, I found I was going back to 
Chester; however, I turned about and 
was soon at Christiana Ferry, and 
crossed over on a horse-boat ; there 
was no bridge over that river then. 
I arrived at New Castle just as the 
Packet reached the ship, and met the 
supercargo coming on shore to hire a 
horse to return to the city for his pa- 
pers. He was delighted to see me. 
I put up at a hotel there kept by a 
Major Bennett, who, like Major An- 
derson of Chester, had been an offi- 
cer in the Revolutionary army. He 
waited on me at the table himself. He 
afterwards became the Governor of the 
State of Delaware." 

The following old time letter of in- 
structions to the master of a ship, will 
serve to elucidate a part of the fore- 
going, and it is of interest here, as 
many of the descendants of the writer 
are living now in Delaware County : 

" riiiLAUELPiiiA, y^si, 5th mo., 1721. — 
Warner Holt : — The ship True Hope, of which 
thou art master, is now imder thy care, and 
thou art ordered to make the best of thy way 
to sea, and when at sea to keep a good look- 
out, and speak with no vessels thou can avoid. 
Oljserve all the acts of trade and navigation, 
and l)e sure to make what despatch thou can, 
and use all the frugality possilile, because our 
vessel is l)ut small. Frugality and industry 
are the true way, with honesty, to prefer and 



])rom<)te and enrich both (nvners and master; 
whereas the contrary is ruinous to all. 

If, please God, thou gets safe to Barbadoes, 
there I hope thou will meet with Joseph French, 
our other owner, under whose care and orders 
thou art to be, in conjunction with my good 
friend, George Howes, merchant there, who 
will give her despatch for London, unless 
they see meet to send her to Jamaica, where 
I hear there is a good crop, but that is left 
to their discretion. This, with hearty desires 
for thy welfare, and wishing thee a good voy- 
age, are the orders of thy real friend and part 
owner of said shiji, 

Thomas Chalkley.-- 

I promise to obey the above orders as near 
as possible. 

Warner Holt. 

Mr. Richard S. Smith says further: 
"I became a resident of Delaware 
County in this way : When Joshua 
Haven and myself were in business 
in Philadelphia, as Commission Mer- 
chants, Captain Henry Moore, (who 
married Ann Odiorne, an aunt of Mrs. 
James M. and John Willcox, of Ivy 
Mills,) who owned the Rockdale fac- 
tories — two cotton factories and a nail 
factory — applied to us to act as his 
agents for the sale of his nails. After 
Mr. Haven's death, I found that Cap- 
tain Moore was largely indebted to 
our firm, and he made a bill of sale 
to us of his property, with the condi- 
tion that we should re-convey the pro- 
perty to him when his indebtedness 
should be liquidated, giving us the 
right of absolute possession if the debt 
was not paid by a time fixed. In 1833, 
he failed in business, and we took pos- 
session of the Rockdale factories and 
other property, and the same year the 
property became mine, and I removed 
with my family to Delaware County, 

•■■' Thomas Chalkley was born in Southwark, 
near London, in 1675, came to Philadelphia 
in 1697, and died in 1741. He was a pro- 
minent member and preacher in the Society 
I of Friends. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



457 



and took up my residence in the man- 
sion near the mills, and resided there 
imtjl 1845, when I sold the property to 
Bernard McCready. In 1830, I was 
elected a Director of the Union Mu- 
tual Insurance Co., and in June, 1837, 
when Lewis Clappier died, I was elect- 
ed President of the Company, having 
thus been connected with the Com- 
pany now 47 years, and its President 
nearly 40 years. After selling the 
property at Rockdale, I found my 
wife and daughters so deeply interest- 
ed in the affairs of Calvary Church, 
built on the property I had sold, I was 
induced to purchase, in connection 
with my friends Bishop (Alonzo) Pot- 
ter and William Martin, [my father,] 
the property at Lenni station, formerly 
belonging to Jesse Taylor, and soon 
afterwards the property near by, on ac- 
count of its having a dwelling upon it, 
and in which I now reside perma- 
nently." 

Mr. Smith is now (1877) ^ h^le, 
hearty gentleman, in his 88th year, 
actively engaged every day in his du- 
ties as President of the "Union Mu- 
tual," having been born, Aug. 16, 1789, 
and never having had three consecu- 
tive days of sickness during his life. 
He belongs to a family noted for their 
longevity. The following interesting 
incident in the life of Mr. Smith, 
which occurred when he was U. S. 
Vice-Consul at Gottenberg, Sweden, 
in the year 181 2, is of historical inter- 
est to all Americans, and has never 
before appeared in print. I condense 
the account from the MS. of Mr. 
Smith, entitled a "-^ Remmisceiice of 
Seven Yeai's of Early Life,'''' being a 
very interesting sketch of his life in 
the counting-house of Pratt & Kint- 
zing, of Philadelphia, his voyage to 
Sweden as the supercargo of a ship, 



and his residence in that country for 
several years. It appears that on the 
morning of July 23, 1812, Mr. Smith 
received information through the Cap- 
tain of the pilot-boat Champlain, an- 
chored in Quarantine harbor fourteen 
miles from Gottenberg, that war had 
been declared by the Congress of 
the United States against England on 
June 17, 1 81 2. He at once called a 
meeting of the American Captains and 
others at his office, and astonished 
them by a recital of the news. There 
were at that time some forty American 
merchantmen lying in Wingo Road ; 
notice was immediately sent to all the 
Captains, and before next morning all 
the vessels had run up the river and 
were anchored under the j^rotection of 
the Swedish batteries, "to the great 
surprise of the British officers, who won- 
dered what had got into the Yankees, 
that they had all gone up the river. ' ' 
The letters brought by the Cham- 
plain, were delivered the next day, 
and the English firm to whom they 
were addressed, were indignant at Mr. 
Smith, (of course they were,) but all 
American property was placed in secu- 
rity ; and the young American had 
the gratification of knowing that by 
his promptness in boarding the Cham- 
plain, he was the first person in Europe 
to obtain the news of the declaration of 
the war of 181 2, and thus saved 32 fine 
vessels belonging to his countrymen 
and their valuable cargoes from easy 
capture by British cruisers. Mr. Smith 
next day started on a weary journey 
of 300 miles, and endeavored to save 
the American vessels loading in the 
Baltic, but the Captains of the ships 
disregarding his news and warnings, 
put to sea, and ten of the vessels were 
captured. The recital of Mr. Smith's 
troubles with the discharged sailors of 



458 



IIIST()]?rY OF CHESTER. 



the blockaded shijjs, and tlic descrip- i 
tion of the sailing of the large fleet of 
the released vessels after the war, are 
very interesting, and the whole work 
should be printed for preservation. 

Richard S. Smith is one of six sons 
of Daniel and Klizal)eth Shute Smith. 
The Shutes are an old Swedish family 
among the earliest .settlers on the Dela- 
ware. Daniel Smith's father was Rich- 
ard Smith of Cape May, N. J., who, 
with the view of educating his children, 
purchased a farm at Gloucester Point, 
N. J. Daniel Smith, father of Rich- 
ard, of Rockdale, entered at an early 
age the counting house of Francis 
Gurney, in Philadelphia, who was en- 
gaged in the West India trade, and 
remained with him until he was of age, 
about 1776. Upon the Declaration 
of Independence, a friend of his ob- 
tained command of a sloop-of-war, 
fitted out in South Carolina; Daniel 
obtained the appointment. of Lieuten- 
ant of Marines, and was ordered to his 
friend's vessel. On their first cruise 
they captured a British transport with 
300 troops on board. Lieut. Smith 
was sent on board to take possession 
of the prize, and received from the 
officer commanding the troops the 
surrender of his sword, which is now 
a treasured family relic. On her se- 
cond cruise, the sloop was captured by 
a British frigate and taken into Provi- 
dence, Rhode Island, and her officers 
and crew closely confined in the hold of 
an old hulk or prison-ship, where they 
were rarely allowed even to go on deck 
to breathe the air. Here they were 
confined for months, the scurvy broke 
out among them and nearly half of the 
prisoners died. Lieut. Smith bore to 
his grave the marks the disease left 
upon his person, which consisted of 
deeji seams in his k^s. After his re- 



lease he \isited Ills family, who had 
returned to Cape May, his father be- 
ing dead. As soon as he had recover- 
ed his health he went to Philadelphia, 
and joined a regiment commanded by 
his old friend and employer Col. Gur- 
ney, and remained in the service two 
years more, after which he married 
Elizabeth, the daughter of William 
Shute, brother of Atwood Shute, who 
was Mayor of Philadelphia from 1755 
to 1757.* After the adoption of the 
Constitution of the United States, 
Daniel Smith and Col. Gurney enter- 
ed into business together, and were 
connected for 30 years, during a part 
of which time they were the Naval 
Agents of the United States, and sup- 
erintended the building of the frigates 
United States and the Philadelphia. 
The distinguished Stephen Decatur 
was a lad in their counting-house, and 
after the frigate United States was 
launched, he entered the Navy as a 
midshipman, and made his first cruise 
in that frigate; afterwards, in 1812, 
he commanded her, and captured 
the British frigate Macedonian, and 
placed his name on the roll of fame 
of his country's naval heroes. I used 



"'■■ Mr. Smith's eldest son is named Atwood 
Smith, in recollection of the old Mayor. Wil- 
liam Atwood was Mayor of Philadelphia in 
1746-7; it is quite prol)al)le that Al\V(,i>d 
Shute was a relative. 

Sven Shute, the S^oetie, came to America 
in 1648, or previously. He was a lieutenant 
in the Swedish service, and as Captain, was 
in command of Fort Cassimer when ft was 
surrendered l^y him to the Dutch, in 1655, 
and for which he was unjustly censured. He 
took the oath of allegiance to the Dutch gov- 
ernment and remained in this country. See 
Vincent's History of Delaware, i vol. 207, 
241 to 245. See also an interesting little 
work called Two hundred years ago, or Life 
in N'c^v Sweden, printed in 1876, by the Am- 
erican Sunday School Union, Philadelphia. 

It is proper to state, however, that it is 
said, Atwood S/itite, the Mayor, was of Eng- 
lish descent. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



459 



to be intimate with "Jack" (John P.) 
and Jackson Decatur. They lived in 
Spruce Street, north side, above Third 
Street, Philadelphia, at that time. 
Their elder brother, Stephen Decatur, 
is a Commodore in the United States 
Navy, but has been an invalid for 
many years from the effects of the 
Coast Fever of Africa. Jack fell dead 
giving an order on board of his ship, of 
which he was ist Lieutenant, in New 
York Harbor. He was an officer in 
the U. S. Navy. I have a punch-ket- 
tle of bell metal or German silver, for- 
merly used by old Commodore De- 
catur, on board the United States. 
It is very handsome, and I prize it 
highly. 

Elizabeth Shute, the wife of Daniel 
Smith, died in 1798, in her 39th year, 
having borne her husband thirteen 
chridren, not in this case an unlucky 
number, except for the mother; al- 
though six of them died before their 
mother, the rest lived to a good old 
age. Juliana, a daughter, wife of John 
Poulson, the editor of Poulson's Ad- 
vertiser, died at the age of 76; James, 
died in 1861, aged 80; Francis Gur- 
ney, in 1873, ^g^cl 89 ; and William, in 
1872, aged 80; Richard S. Smith is 
87 ; Daniel Smith, 86 ; and Colonel 
Charles S. Smith, 78. The six bro- 
thers have all celebrated their golden 
weddings ; all have lived in Philadel- 
phia from their youth, and all have 
occupied prominent positions in busi- 
ness and social circles. Richard S., 
married Eliza, daughter of John Beach, 
of Gloucester city, Mass., in the year 
1813. They had issue, Atwood and 
Horace (deceased), and two daughters 
living. 

The following account of Calvary 
Episcopal Church, at Rockdale, which 
I persuaded Mr. Smith to relate to me. 



for it should not be lost, will show 
what good one man and three women 
can accomplish in a country neighbor- 
hood, when their hearts are in their 
work. He said: "When I went to 
live at Rockdale, there being no Epis- 
copal church within five miles of the 
place, we determined to make an effort 
to establish one, and at once founded 
a Sunday-School in a vacant room in 
one of the mills, my wife and daugh- 
ters, who were qualified by previous 
experience, taking charge of the classes 
while I acted as superintendent. This 
was in 1834, and the project was at- 
tended with so much success, that it 
led to the forming of a congregation, 
and the Bishop authorized Mr. King- 
ston Goddard, then a student of Di- 
vinity, to officiate as Lay reader. Sub- 
sequently the Advancement Society 
sent the Rev. Marmaduke Hurst as 
a missionary. The parish was then 
named by Bishop Onderdonk, Calvary 
Church and admitted to the conven- 
tion. By great exertion we succeeded 
with the liberal aid of friends, in rais- 
ing a fund for the erection of a church 
building, and the corner-stone was laid 
by Bishop Onderdonk, Aug. 18, 1836. 
The walls were put up and covered with 
a roof, the floor was laid, the base- 
ment, which was appropriated for the 
Sunday-School, was plastered, and the 
first service was held therein on Christ- 
mas Eve, 1836, the Rev. Richard D. 
Hall, of Chester, officiating. The ser- 
vices of the church and Sunday-School 
was thereafter regularly continued in 
the edifice ; the Sunday-School hav- 
ing about 100 scholars. \\\ October, 
1838, Mr. Hurst, the missionary, re- 
signed, and the Rev. Alfred Lee was, 
upon my nomination, appointed Rec- 
tor, and agreed to serve for a very small 
salary, if a dwelling could l)e obtained 



4()() 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



for his family near the church ; there 
being none, I invited him to live with 
us, which he did for three years, to 
our mutual happiness. During the 
time Mr. Lee had charge, we raised 
sufficient means to finish the church, 
putting in the pews and furnishing it 
simply but approi)riately. The com- 
municants increased to 120, and the 
Sunday-School scholars to 300. Our 
proximity to the State of Delaware, 
brought Mr. Lee to the notice of that 
diocese, which was then in charge of the 
Bishop of Pennsylvania. In 1841, Mr. 
Lee was unanimously elected Bishop 
of Delaware, and while we could not 
but mourn his separation from us, we 
were proud of the providential intro- 
duction through our humble parish, of 
so a])le a Bisliop into our beloved 
church. In 1845, ^ disposed of the 
Rockdale property to* Mr. McCready, 
reserving one acre for a burial ground 
adjoining the church. So my wife and 
daughters still kept up their labors in 
the Bible class with unabated interest 
and energy. I rented a house of Mr. 
John P. Crozer, about lialf a mile from 
the church, which I occupied till 1852, 
during the summer season; living in 
Philadelphia in the winter, in the house 
I had purchased there in Clinton Street, 
in 1838. In 1852, 1 purchased a small 
farm of 17 acres near Lenni station, in 
the immediate vicinity of the church, 
having on it a plain country farm house, 
which I somewhat enlarged, and in 
which I now(_i876) reside permanently; 
my daughters still laboring in the Bible 
classes and Sunday-School of Calvary 
Church, to which a chapel has been add- 
ed, as well as a handsome stone parson- 
age, a double building erected on three 
acres of the property purchased by the 
Rt. Rev. Bishop Potter, Mr. William 
Martin and myself, which we donated 



to the church for that purpose. The 
parsonage cost $ 7000 to erect it. Since 
the resignation of Bishop Lee, the 
Rectors of Calvary Church have been, 
Rev. Charles Breck, six years ; Rev. 
John K. Murphy, fifteen years, suc- 
ceeded by Rev. William Ely, who en- 
tered on the charge in 1862. During 
this time the church has been enlarged 
and handsomely furnished, at a cost 
of ^4,500. The communicants num- 
ber over 80 ; the Bible classes and 
Sunday-School scholars, over 200. 
Three young men from the classes are 
now ministers of the church, and a 
fourth is studying for the ministry in 
the divinity school of the Episcopal 
Church. In 1874, the Rev. James 
Walker succeeded Mr. Ely as Rector. 



L. 



Sei'cn /lours to laio, to soothing shtntbcr seven. 
Ten to the 'coorld allot, and all to Heaven. 
Sir William Jones. 

The history of the Bench and Bar 
of Chester and Delaware Counties, 
commences in the early days of the 
settlement of the Swedes on the river, 
and it is peculiarly interesting to the 
members of the legal profession. Courts 
of Justice, it is presumed, were first 
established on the banks of the Dela- 
ware by the Swedish Governor Printz, 
who was instructed "to decide all con- 
troversies according to the laws, cus- 
toms and usages of Sweden." What 
Courts he established, and what was 
the mode of procedure therein, is, I 
believe, unknown. For Edward Arm- 
strong, Esq., in his introduction to the 
^'Records of Upland Court,'' in vol. 7, 
p. 29, of the Memoirs of the Histori- 
cal Society of Pennsylvania, after giv- 
ing an interesting sketch of all that is 
known in reference to the rise, ])ro- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



461 



gress and changes made in the adminis- 
tration of justice by the Swedes, Dutch 
and English, previous to the beginning 
of the Record on Nov. 14, 1676, says: 
*'If so little is known of the Dutch 
Courts, less is know of the Swedish." 
Printz fixed the seat of government 
in New Gottenburg on Tinicum, and 
there the principal persons among the 
Swedes, took up their residence, and 
there undoubtedly the first Courts of 
Justice were regularly established in 
what is now the Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania. 

It is not positively known whether 
either the Swedes or Dutch ever held 
a Court at Chester, previous to the 
time of the conquest of the country 
by the English, in 1664, and the pre- 
cise time at which it became a seat of 
Justice under the latter, cannot now be 
definitely determined. The Swedes, 
after their conquest by the Dutch, 
were still permitted to govern them- 
selves by their own magistrates, who 
were continued in office. They w«re 
directed to concentrate themselves in 
villages, (which they never did, how- 
ever) ; and among the places named 
for that purpose was Upland, now 
Chester. This conciliatory policy of 
the Dutch, was followed by the Eng- 
lish, who continued the Swedish magis- 
trates in authority with titles and pow- 
ers unknown to the English law. The 
probabilities are, therefore, that the 
Swedes established the first Court at 
Chester, which was recognized by the 
Dutch and again by the English, when 
they came into power. On Aug. 18, 
1672, the "Court at Upland" was 
directed by the Court at New York, 
to try a case involving a title to land, 
which is proof positive, that previous 
to that time a Court was in existence 
at Chester, and that the first Courts, 



under English authority in Pennsyl- 
vania, held their sittings in that an- 
cient town. At a session of the Up- 
land Court, held June 13, 1677, it was 
ordered, " that no person. bee admit- 
ted to plead for any other person as 
an Attorney in Court, without he first 
have his admittance of the Court, or 
have a Warrant of Attorney for his so 
doing from his clyant." And at the 
November Court the same year, an 
order of the Governor, and the whole 
Council, was promulgated for the se- 
cond time, bearing date in May, 1677, 
as follows: -'Resolved and ordered 
that pleading Attorneys bee no longer 
allowed to practize in y^ Government 
but for y° depending causes. ' ' No rea- 
son is given for this order, and yet on 
the 1 6th of June of the same year, 
John Matthews was admitted as an 
Attorney, and took an oath "not to 
exact unallowed fees, not to take fees 
from both plaintiff and defendant, and 
that he will not take any apparent un- 
just cause in hand, but to behave as 
all Attorneys ought to do." Hazard's 
Annals, 439. The jurisdiction of the 
Upland Court extended from Christi- 
ana Creek to the head waters of the 
Delaware. I have made a list of the 
Justices of the Peace of the Upland 
Court, and of the Courts of Chester 
County, appointed and commissioned 
by William Penn and his Lieutenant 
Governors and Council, prior to the 
Revolution. It is compiled from the 
Colonial Records, the Minutes of the 
Court of Chester County, and other 
sources, and is as near complete as 
possible in regard to the names. Some 
few may be omitted, however, as in 
some cases the names of those ap- 
pointed are not given. Many were 
frequently re-appointed and held office 
I for a long series of years; for in- 



462 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



stance, John Crosby was appointed 
in 1724, and re-appointed on each 
occasion that a new commission for 
Justices was issued, until his death, 
in 1750. It would be useless to make 
a list with the repetition of the names, 
unless it could be made perfect, which 
I have found to be impossible. My 
object is only to give a list of the 
names of those who were Justices of 
the Courts, and have sat at Chester, as 
far as known. I know of no similar 
list. Members of Council were ex 
officio qualified to sit as Justices in any 
Court of the Province. 

The Court of Nov. 30th, 1681, was 
held before Wm. Markham, Esqr., 
" Governor & President," and ten Jus- 
tices. March 14th, 1681 (2), he was 
also President. June 13th, 1682, Wil- 
liam Clayton was so styled. Markham 
again Sept. 12, 1682. John Simcock, 
Feb. 14, 1682 (3), and Wm. Penn was 
"present" at Court, June 27, 1683. 
Christopher Taylor is spoken of by Dr. 
Smith as Presiding Justice in 1684. 
Peter Baynton was President of the 
Court on June 22, 1693, and George 
Foreman was present on the Bench 
as a member of the Council. In the 
minutes of the Courts the names of the 
Justices in attendance are given, and 
the first named is styled President; but 
even where the same Justices were pre- 
sent at different times, they were not 
presided over by the same one. In 
1684, Taylor, Blunston, Wade and 
Wood are styled President at different 
times; in 1685, Blunston, Wood and 
Simcock; in 1686, Simcock, Bluns- 
ton and Maris; in 1687, Blunston and 
Bristow. It is probable that the oldest 
Justice, by commission, present at any 
session of the Court, presided ; if more 
than one, they took turns. In the 
proceedings of Council. 3 mo. 23, 



1683, attested copies of all laws were 
directed to be sent to the President 
or Clerk of each County Court. The 
Chief Burgess of Chester, for the time 
being, was always included in each 
commission or set of Justices, but with- 
out the name being given. Thomas 
Cummings was Chief Burgess of Ches- 
ter in 1 731, and perhaps earlier. He 
sat at Court, 1732; Thomas Morgan 
appeared at Court, 1753-4-5-6 ; Sam- 
uel Howell in 1752; Joseph Hoskins 
in 1 757-8 ; Jonathan Cowpland, 1 759- 
61 ; Paul Jackson, 1762, <S:c., no doubt 
all Chief Burgesses. These Justices 
were not only Justices of the Courts, 
but of the Peace also ; and they were 
gentlemen of larger intelligence, and 
of more weight and influence in the 
community, and of more dignity of 
character, than the majority of men 
who are now elected Justices of the 
Peace in the country, and Aldermen 
in our cities. In fact, they were like 
the "Squires" of England, where to 
be included in the Commission of the 
Peace, is an endorsement to a gentle- 
man that he is considered one of the 
leading men in the county. The names 
of the Justices are as follows : 
1674. 1681. 

Peter Cock,* William Clayton, 

Peter Rambo, William Warner, 

Israel Helm, Robert Wade, 

Lace Andries, William Byles, 

OeleSwenseii. Robert Lucas, 

1676. Thomas Fairman, 

John Moll, James Sandelands, 

Otto Ernest Cock. Swen Swenson, 

1680. Andreas Bankson. 
Henry Jones, 1683. 

George Browne, John Simcock, 

Lawrence Cock. Thomas Brasey, 

* The present family of Cox (Cock) liave in 
their possession a manuscript relating to the 
early settlement on the Delaware by the Swedes, 
which dates back to 1657, about 15 years 
after the landing of Gov. Printz ; also, tax re- 
ceipts and quit-rent receipts from that date to 
1 700. Deeds for property on the banks of the 
Delaware, dated 1672, and a power of attor- 
ney, granted by Jeuffro Armgard Printz, alias 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



463 



John Bezer, 
Ralph Withers. 

1684. 
Christopher Taylor, 
William Wood, 
Nicholas Newlin, 
George Maris, 
Thomas Usher, 
Robert Pyle, 
John Blunston, 
John Harding. 
1686. 
Bartholomew Coppock, 
Samuel Levis, 
Francis Harrison. 

1637. 
John Bristow, 
Edward Bezer. 

1688. 
Barth. Coppock, Jr. 

1689. 
John Bevan, 
William Howell, 
Joshua Fearne, 
James Sandelands. 

1691. 
William Jenkins. 

1693. 
George Foreman, 
Jeremiah CoUett, 
Thomas Smith, 
Thomas Withers, 



Peter Baynton, 
Jonathan Hayes. 

1694. 
Jasper Yeates. 
1698. 
Philip Roman, 
Caleb Pusey. 
1700. 
Ralph Fishbourn. 

1702. 
Walter Martin. 

1703- 
John Guest. 

1709. 
Thomas Powell, 
Henry Pierce, 
Nicholas Pyle. 

1712. 
William Davis. 

1715- 
Richard Webb, 
Henry Nayle, 
Nicholas Fairlamb, 
John Blunston, Jr., 
Richard Hayes. 

1717. 
John Wright, 
David Harry, 
Joseph Coebourn, 
Henry Hayes. 
1718. 
Nathaniel Newlin, 



Papagoya, daughter of the Swedish Governor, 
to Otto Ernest Cock, dated 1675. These 
ancient manuscripts trace the lineage of the 
Swedish family of Cock, from the landing of 
Peter Kock with Printz, one of whose soldiers 
he was, in 1642, down to the present family 
of Cox, of whom there is a large number liv- 
ing in the vicinity of Philadelphia ; the oldest 
member of the family living, being Justice 
Cox, of Buckingham, Bucks County, Pa. In 
the family history, the most remarkable occur- 
rence, and one which indicates the descent of 
the family, and its connection with the Swed- 
ish soldier, is the fact,. that the tract of land, 
purchased of the Indians by Peter Kock, the 
first settler, and occupied by him in 1658, 
when the Swedes surrendered to the Dutch, 
and which was confirmed to him by Patent, 
recorded in the Secretary of State's office at 
Albany, N. Y., 2 vol., 630, c. I, 1669, remains 
at the present time in the family, and is owned 
by its head, Justice Cox. The patent says : 
To Peter Kock, " to confirm to him, a certain 
island in the Delaware River, now in his oc- 
cupation, lying in a kill which runs into the 
Schuylkill, and by tides with the main river, 
containing, by estimation, 20 morgen or fifty 
acres of unimproved land, besides broken 
lands, &c., formerly granted by Gov. Stuyve- 
sant to the said Peter Cock." This land is 
no longer an island, but is fast land at the 
junction of the two rivers, on the southern side 
of the Schuylkill. 



Andrew Job, 
Elisha Gatchell, 
John Cartledge, 
Francis Worley, 
James Gibbons. 

1722. 
James Mitchell, 
Isaac Taylor. 
1724. 
John Wood, 
Samuel Nutt, 
John Crosby, 
Abraham Emmett, Jr., 
Thomas Reid, 
George Aston, 
Tobias Hendricks, 
Andrew Cornish, 
Mercer Brown, 

Evan Lewis, 

William Pyle. 
1729-30. 

James James, 

John Parry, 

Joseph Pennock, 

Samuel Hollingsworth, 

Joseph Brinton. 
1731- 

John Karnaughan. 
1733- 

Caleb Cowpland. 
1737- 

John Evans. 
1738- 

Joseph Brinton, 

Joseph Haines, 

William Pirn, 

Joseph Bonsall, 

Joseph Parker. 
1741. 

William Moore, 

William Webb, 

John Mather, 

Ralph Pile, 

John Taylor, 

Job Ruston, 

Charles Grantum. 
1745- 

Thomas Cummings, 

Col. Andrew McDowell, 

Samuel Flower. 



P.J. 



1749. 
Thomas Worth, 
Richard Richison, 
John Miller, 
Aaron Ashbridge, 
William Read, 
John Scot, 
Isaac Davis, 
John Churchman. 

1751- 
Joshua Pusey, 
Samuel Lightfoot. 

1752. 
Edward Brinton, 
Mordecai Moore, 
Mordecai James. 

1757- 
Alexander Johnson, 
John Morton,! 
John Culbertson, 
William Clingan, 
John Paschal, 
William Parker, 
Timothy Kirk. 

1761. 
John Hannum, 
John Price, 
Roger Hunt, 
John Fairlamb, 
George Currie, 
Henry Hale Graham. 

1762. 
Dr. Paul Jackson. 

1764. 
William Boyd, 
Richard Riley, 
James Hunter, 
James Evans. 
1770. 
Charles Cruikshanks, 
Richard Baker, 
James Moore, 
William SwafFer, 
Evan Evans, 
Thomas Hockley, 
Joseph Pyle, 
Thomas Temple, 
Warwick Miller. 

1772. 
Joshua Cowpland. 



* William Moore, is called President Judge 
of the Courts of Common Pleas of Chester 
County, Feb. 5,1758- See Dr. Perry's Papers 
relating to the History of the Church in Penn- 
sylvania, pp. 264, 270. 

f Gov. Denny, during his administration, 
in 1759, issued commissions to Samuel Light- 
foot, Edward Brinton, Thomas Worth and 
John Morton, as Judges of the Court of Com- 
mon Pleas of Chester County ; writs of super- 
sedeas were issued Feb. 23, 1761 ; the Act 
under which they were appointed having been 
repealed by the Privy Council, Sept. 2, 1760. 

John Morton and William Parker were com- 
missioned on Dec. 24, 1770, to hold Courts 
in Chester, for the tryal of negroes. 



464 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



The following Justices were appoint- 
ed by the Convention for the State of 
Pennsylvania, by an ordinance, passed 
Sept. 3, 1776. 



Alexander Johnst 
John Wilson, 
William Clingan, 
William Haslet, 
Evan Evans, 
Israel Whelan, 



Richard Kaker, 
William Denny, 
John Sellers, 
Samuel Bond, 
Nicholas p'airlamh, 
John Jones, 



Robert Mendenhall. 

The new names mentioned are only 
given ; re-appointments are not notic- 
ed. They do not appear, however, 
to have been commissioned. 

Caleb Davis, in a letter to Council, 
dated Chester County, May 28, 1779, 
gives a list of the names of all the per- 
sons mentioned in the several Com- 
missions of the Peace issued "since 
the Revolution. ' ' See 7 Pa. Archives, 
444. It is as follows: omitting the 
remarks. 

Isaac Davis, Robert Smith, 

Evan Evans, Philip Scott, 

James Moore, Thomas Taylor, 

Benj. Bartholomew, Thomas Cheyney, 

John Mackey, 'J'homas Levis, 

William Gibbons, Thomas Boyd, 

Joshua Evans, Robert Ralston, 

Isaac Pearson, John Hart, 

Dan. Griffith, Richard Reyley, 

Patterson Bell, William Evans, 

John Hannum, William Clingan. 

After the formation of the Common- 
wealth, the Justices of the Peace and 
of the Courts, were made elective (by 
the freeholders) for a term of seven 
years ; and the Supreme Executive 
Council gave notice by an advertise- 
ment, dated July 5, 1777, of an Act 
and supplement thereto, in reference 
to the election of Justices, and direct- 
ed elections to be held in all places 
where it had been neglected on ac- 
count of the disturbed state of the 
country. On July 25, 1777, (11 Col. 
lice, 251,) the Council commissioned 
Thomas Levis, Thomas Boyd, Robert 
Ralston, John Hart, and Richard Rei- 
ley. Justices of the Peace and of the 



Courts of Chester County; they hav- 
ing been returned as elected. These 
gentlemen are, I imagine, the Justices 
mentioned as holding the Courts dur- 
ing the Revolution. On Nov. 18, 1780, 
the Supreme Executive Council, in ac- 
cordance with the requirements of an 
Act of Assembly of the State, authoriz- 
ing it to appoint one of the Justices of 
each county to preside in the respec- 
tive Courts of Common Pleas, Quarter 
Sessions and Orphans' Courts, ap- 
pointed William Clingan, Esq., Pre- 
sident Judge of Chester County. The 
Seat of Justice was removed to West 
Chester, and the first Court was held 
there, Nov. 28, 1786, by William Clin- 
gan, President Judge, and the following 
Justices and Associates : William Has- 
let, John Bartholomew, Philip Scott, 
Isaac Taylor, John Ralston, Joseph 
Luckey, Thomas Cheyney, Thomas 
Levis and Richard Hill Morris. The 
following is a list of the Justices until 
the division of the County in 1789, 
with the year of election and commis- 
sion of each : 



Thomas Taylor, 
Thos. Cheyney, 
Wm. Clingan. 
1780. 
William Clingan, P. J. 
David McKinney, 
John Pearson, 
Isaac Pearson, 
Benj. Bartholomew, 
Joshua Evans, 
Daniel Griffiths, 
Patterson Bell, 
Robert Smith, 



1777. 

Thomas Levis, 

Thomas Boyd, 

Robert Ralston, 

John Hart, 

Richard Reiley, 

Caleb Davis, 

John Mackey, 

William Gibbons. 
1778. 

William Evans, 
1779. 

David Cowpland, 

Chief Burgess of Chester. Phillip Scott. 

Isaac Davis, 1781. 

James Moore, William Heslit. 

Alexander Johnston, 1782. 

David Mackey, Capt. Joseph Luckey, 

John Hannum, Major Isaac Taylor, 

"William Clingan, Esq., was a Justice of 
the Peace from 1757 to 1786, and for the last 
six years of that ])eriod, was President Judge 
of the Courts of Chester County. From 1777 
to 1779, he was a member of the Continental 
Congress. He left no descendants. See y. 
Smith FittJuy s History of the Upper Octorara 
Church. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



465 



John Beaton. Persifer Frazer, 

1783. John Culbertson, 
John Bartholomew. John Worth, 

1784. Adam Grubb, 
George Pierce, Richard Hill iSIorris. 
Thomas Levis, 1788. 

John Ralston. Charles Dilworth. 

1786 1729- 

William Clingan, P. J., Walter Finney. 



In tlic Bulletin of the Histoiical 
Society of Femisylvania, i vol., 32, in 
an account of the battle of Brandywine, 
Thomas Cheyney is- mentioned as a 
Justice of the Peace, before, during, 
and after the Revolution, and as a 
staunch patriot. Walter Finney, elect- 
ed in 1789, was a Captain in the 3d 
Regiment of Pennsylvania Infantry. 
1 3 Colonial Rec. , 717. 

On Sept. 26, 1789, an Act of As- 
sembly was passed, dividing Chester 
County, and forming Delaware County 
out of that portion on the banks of the 
river Delaware, with the town of Ches- 
ter as the Seat of Justice ; and in that 
year the following persons were ap- 
pointed by the President and Supreme 
Executive Council of Pennsylvania, 
Justices of the Peace and of the Courts 
of the new County, under the opinion 
of William Bradford, Jr., Esq., of Oct. 
9, 1789, (16 C. R., 187,) that the 
former Justices in that part of the old 
County of Chester, which, by the di- 
vision, became Delaware County, re- 
tained their offices of Justices of the 
Peace for the districts in which they 
were elected, but could not sit as 
Justices of the Courts without being 
appointed and commissioned by the 
Council. In accordance therewith, 
the President and Council, made the 
following appointments : (It will be 
observed, that previous to the above 
date the Council had already, Sept. 
28, 1789, appointed William Richard- 
son Atlee, Esq., Clerk of the Courts 
of Delaware County, and a Justice 



also. 16 C. R., 172. Atlee married 
Miss Wayne, and settled at Chester. ) 

Henry Hale Graham, President, Nov. 7, 1789 

Wm. Richardson Atlee, Justice, . Sept. 28, " 

John Pearson, Esq., " . . Oct. 12, " 

Thomas Levis, " . . " " " 

Richard Hill Morris, " . . " " " 

George Peirce, " . . " " " 

Adam Grubb, (resigned) " . . Nov. 28, " 

Elisha Price, " . . Mar. 16, 1790 

Joel Willis, vice Grubb resigned, . July 15, " 

On Nov. 10, 1789, the Council dis- 
covered that the appointment of Henry 
Hale Graham was void, as he was not 
a Justice of the Peace when he was 
commissioned. So his appointment 
and commission were revoked, and 
he was re-appointed and commissioned 
"Justice of the Court of Common 
Pleas and President of said Court." 
Mr. Graham died Jan. 23, 1790, be- 
fore taking his seat on the Bench. 

On Sept. 2, 1790, a new Constitu- 
tion for the Commonwealth of Penn- 
sylvania was adopted, and from its 
provisions, Justices of the Peace ceas- 
ed to be Judges of the Courts ; (they 
sat for the last time at West Chester, 
in August term, 1790 ;) and the Courts 
were re-organized by dividing the State 
into Circuits or Districts, including not 
less than three, nor more than six 
counties, with a President Judge learn- 
ed in the law, appointed by the Gov- 
ernor, and Associate Judges laymen, 
for each county, not fewer than three, 
or more than four. From the above 
it will be seen, that until the adop- 
tion of the Constitution of 1790, the 
Courts of Chester County had been 
held from 1674, seven years before the 
acquisition of the Province by Penn, 
a period of 1 1 6 years and over, by Jus- 
tices of the Peace. 

In the division of the Common- 
wealth into districts in accordance 
with the new Constitution ; the first 
I district was composed of the counties 



460 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



of IMiiladclphia, Jkicks, Montgomery, 
and Delaware, so that the President 
Judges of the Common Pleas and Quar- 
ter Sessions of Philadelphia, presided 
in Delaware County Courts until the 
Act of Feb. 24, 1806, placed Delaware 
in the seventh district, with Chester 
and Montgomery Counties. In 1821, 
Chester and Delaware were formed 
into the fifteenth judicial district, with 
a President Judge, learned in the law, 
and two Associates, laymen, irrever- 
ently called "Flower-pot Judges." 
In 1 85 1, the offices became elective. 

By the passage of the Act of Assem- 
bly of April 9, 1874, passed in accord- 
ance with the requirements of the new 
Constitution of 1872-73, the county of 
Delaware became the thirty-second Ju- 
dicial District. The Judges of the 
Courts of Delaware County since its 
formation, have been, 



Henry Hale Graham, appointed 


Nov. 7 


1789 


John Venrson, ad 2n(e>!)», 




1790 


James Biddle, appointed by Constitution 


of 


1790 


John D. Coxe, appointed . 


April 6 


1797 


William Tilghman, appointed . 


July 31 


1805 


Bird Wilson, 


April, 


1806 


John Ross, 


Feb'y 


1818 


Isaac Darlington, " 


May, 


1821 


Thomas S. Bell, 


" 


1839 


John M. Foster, " 


Dec. 


1846 


James Nill, 


Mar. 


1847 


Henry Chapman, " 




1848 


Townsend Haines, elected, 


Oct., 


1851 


William Butler, 


" 


1861 


John M. Broomall, appointed . 


April, 


1874 


Thomas J. CKiyton, elected 


Nov. 2 


,1874 


Associate Judges. 






Thomas Lewis and George Pearce, . 




1790 


Elisha Price and Joseph Hibberd, . 




1791 


Hugh Lloyd, Mark Willcox, Richard Ril 


;yand 




John Pearce, 




1792 


John Crosby and Hvigh Lloyd, 




1799 


Hugh Lloyd and Mark Willcox, . 




1821 


Hugh Lloyd and John Pearce, 




1824 


John Pearce and William Anderson, 




1826 


John Pearce and Joseph Engle, 




1827 


Joseph Engle and Henry Myers, 




1834 


Joseph Engle and Dr. George Smith, 




1837 


Joseph Engle and George G. Leiper, 




1842 


Sketchley Morton and James Andrews, 




1852 


Frederick J. Hinkson and James Andrews, 


1857 


Charles Williamson and James Andrews, 


1 861 


James Andrews and Dr. George Smith, 




1862 


Bartine Smith and Thomas Recce, . 




1867 



In January, 1877, the commissions 
of these Associate Lay Judges expired, 
in accordance with the provisions of 
the Constitution of 1873. 

The following Biographical Sketches 
are taken from the Historical Collec- 
tions of Chester County, in which I have 
made some alterations and additions: 

By an Act of Asseml^ly, passed Feb. 24, 
1806, the State was re-districted. Philadel- 
phia was con.stituted the ist district, and the 
counties of Chester, Delaware, Montgomery 
and Bucks, the 7th district. Soon after the 
passage of this act, Bird Wilson was appointed 
by Gov. McKean, President Judge of the /'th 
district, and presided until February, 1817, 
when he laid aside the ermine, and became a 
clergyman of the Episcopal Church. Judge 
Wilson was a man of talent, learning and re- 
markable mildness of manner and amiability 
of character, united with inflexible firmness 
and decision. He was distinguished for the 
soundness of his decisions, and it is said that 
only one was ever reversed in the Supreme 
Court. He was held in high respect and es- 
teem for his virtues as a man, and his integrity, 
uprightness and ability as a presiding officer 
in the Judiciary. In 1813, he edited an edi- 
tion of Bacon's Abridgment of the Laws, a 
standard English work ; M'hen he presided 
over the Courts of the 7th district, he resided 
at Norristown. After he left the bench, he 
was the pastor of the Episcopal Church at 
Norristown, until i82i,when he was appoint- 
ed a professor in the Theological Seminary of 
the Episcopal Church in the city of New York. 
In that position he continued until June 24, 
1850, a period of 29 years, when he resigned. 
As a token of respect the Seminary appointed 
him Evierittis Professor in his department. 
He died in New York, April 14, 1857, aged 
82 years. 

John Ross, was appointed by Gov. Findley 
in 1818. He presided over the Courts of the 
four counties — Chester, Delaware, Montgo- 
mery and Bucks — composing the 7th district, 
from February, 181 8, to May, 1821. The 
district was then divided, and a new district 
formed — called the 15th Judicial District — 
composed of the counties of Chester and Dela- 
ware. Judge Ross remained the President 
Judge (if the 7th district, composed after the 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



467 



ilivi.sioii ol' the cuLintics of Bucks and Mont- 
i,fomery. He resided, while presiding over 
the Courts of Chester County, at Doylestown, 
Bucks County. 

Isaac Darlington, was appointed l>y Gov. 
Heister, President Judge of the new judicial 
district, composed of Chester and Delaware 
Counties, on the 22d of May, 1 82 1, and held 
the office until his death, on the 27th of April, 

1839- 

Judge Darlington was a man of remarkably 
strong intellect, and of excellent attainments 
in the law. He was eminently prompt and 
sagacious in perceiving the strong points of the 
causes before him, and his adjudications were 
ever highly respected by the supreme tribunal 
of the State. By the people, his opinions 
were treated with profound respect, and so 
implicit was their confidence in his judgment, 
that it was enough that Judge Darlington de- 
cided a matter; they never dissented from, or 
doubted the correctness of the decision. 

On the death of Judge Darlington, Gov. Por- 
ter appointed Thomas S. Bell his successor. He 
was commissioned May 16, 1839, and presided 
over the Courts of the district from that time 
until his appointment by Gov. Shunk to a seat 
on the bench of the Supreme Court, the i8th 
of November, 1846. 

In his intercourse with the Bench and the 
Bar, Judge Bell was uniformly courteous and 
honorable. To the younger members of the 
Bar he always evinced great kindness. He 
had a mind remarkably quick of comprehen- 
sion, mastering his subject almost by intuition, 
and there were few men more ready in debate. 
He was a very fluent speaker, and a clear and 
forcible writer, and as a Judge, gave great 
satisfaction to the Bar and the people of the 
district. He died June 6, i86i,in the 6ist 
year of his age. 

The vacancy created by the translation of 
Judge Bell to the bench of the Supreme Court, 
was filled by Gov. Shunk, by the appointment 
of John M. Forster, of Harrisburg. Judge 
Forster presided from December, 1846, until 
March 1847 — about three months, — when his 
nomination was rejected by the Senate. He 
was a very courteous gentleman, but did not 
seem suited to the wants of so important a 
district. When his nomination was first made 
to the Senate, it was confirmed, but afterwards 
re-considered and rejected. 

On the i-ejection of Judge Forster, James 



Nill, of Chambcrshurg, was appointed and 
presided over the Courts from March 23, 1847, 
until March, 1848, when his nomination was 
also rejected by the Senate. 

Judge Nill possessed a fair knowledge of the 
law, and was especially well read in Penn.syl- 
vania decisions, and much interest and a good 
deal of feeling were excited when his nomi- 
nation was before the Senate. The Bar was 
divided, — some maintaining that he was not 
suited in all respects to fill the position satis- 
factorily, and that a more acceptable nomination 
should be made; and others, that he would in 
time make a good Judge, and that those who 
were against his confirmation were captious 
and hard to please. Those opposed to him, 
however, succeeded in procuring his rejection 
by a tie vote in the Senate. 

Gov. Shunk then, at the solicitation of mem- 
bers of the Bar of the 15th district, appointed 
his son-in-law Henry Chapman, of Doyles- 
town, Presiding Judge, on March 18, 1848, 
and he was forthwith unanimously confirmed 
by the Senate. Judge Chapman presided 
over the Courts of the district, with great ac- 
ceptance and to the entire satisfaction of the 
Bar and the people, until the expiration of his 
term of office under the provisions of the 
Amendment to the Constitution, which made 
the office elective. His Presidency extended 
from March 1 8, 1 848, to December, 1 85 1 . He 
was solicited by members of both jDolitical 
parties to become a candidate for the office 
under the elective system, with the assurance 
that it was not likely any candidate would be 
placed in the field against him, but he de- 
clined, — it not being convenient for him to 
reside in the district, agreeably to the require- 
ments of the amended Constitution. 

Townsend Flaines, was elected President 
Judge at the genei-al election in October, 1851 
— the opposing candidate being Hon. Thomas 

5. Bell — commissioned by Gov. Johnson, Nov. 

6, 1851, and presided during the constitutional 
term of ten years, from the first Monday of 
December, 185 1, to the first Monday of De- 
cember, 1861. Judge Haines was a man of 
conceded strong intellect, an excellent writer, 
a poet of no mean pretensions, an able and 
eloquent speaker, courteous in manners and 
popular with the people. 

He was succeeded by William Butler, the 
present incumbent, who was elected at the 
general election, Oct. 8, 1861, — the opposing 



408 



J STORY OF ClIESTKH. 



candidato being Josej)!! Ilciniihill. Judge 
Butler was commissioned by Gov. Curtin, 
Nov. 20, 1861, entered upon his duties Dec. 
2, 1861, and was re-elected in October, 1871, 
and has continued to preside to the present 
time, to the entire satisfaction of the Bar, and 
of the peojiie of the district. 

Judge liutler is tlic thirteenth Judge who ha^ 
presided over the Courts of Chester County, 
but four of whom have resided within its bor- 
ders, viz.. Judges Darlington, Hell, Haines and 
r.utler. 

By the new Constitution, tlie term 
of Judge Butler expired on the first 
Monday in December, 1874, as re- 
gards Delaware County, which became 
the 3d Judicial District. Gov. Hart- 
ranft nominated the Hon. John M. 
Broomall, for the Presiding Judge, 
and he was duly confirmed. 

John M. Broomall, the fourteenth 
Presiding Judge of the Courts of Dela- 
ware County, is a native of the county, 
having been born in Upper Chichester, 
and is the son of John and Sarah (Mar- 
tinj Broomall. His ancestors were 
English Quakers, and he was educated 
in the Friends' schools, studied law 
with Judge Bouvier, of Philadelphia, 
and was admitted to the Bar of Dela- 
ware County, Aug. 24, 1840. He was 
elected a Representative to the Assem- 
bly, 1851, '52; a Representative in 
Congress, from 1862 to 1868. In 
1872, he was elected a member of the 
Constitutional Convention, and under 
the Constitution then adopted, ap- 
pointed Presiding Judge of the 3 2d 
Judicial District by the Governor, 
being a Republican in politics. He 
married in 1841, Elizabeth Booth, 
daughter of Joseph and Martha, who 
died 1848, leaving two children, one 
a son, William D., a lawyer, practicing 
in Chester, and a daughter, who gradu- 
ated at "The Women's Medical Col- 
lege." in I'hihvdL-lpliia. and now ])nr- 



suing her studies in A'ienna. In 1853, 
he married Caroline, daughter of John 
Jr., and Charlotte Larkin, of Chester, 
Pa. Judge Broomall, is a gentleman 
of large wealth, and an accomplished 
lawyer. He was a candidate for re- 
election in the fall of 1874, but was 
defeated by the Independent Republi- 
can candidate, who was supported by 

I the Democratic party. 

1 Thomas J. Clayton, the successor 
of Judge Broomall, is also a native of 
Delaware County, born in Bethel, Jan. 
20, 1826, son of John, deceased; and 
entered upon the duties of his posi- 
tion, Jan. 4, 1875. J'-idge Clayton, 
was admitted to the Bar of his na- 
tive county, Nov. 24, 1851, but Avon 
his legal laurels at the Philadelphia 
Bar, where he practiced from 1852 
until his advancement to the Bench, 
with great success, being distinguished 
for his forensic abilities, which were 
all-powerful with Juries. His resi- 
dence is beautifully located on the 
ridge in South Chester, command- 
ing an extensive view of the river 
Delaware and adjoining country. The 
Clayton's were among the earliest set- 
tlers at Marcus Hook, and William 
Clayton, the ancestor, was an exten- 
sive land-holder in the vicinity, under 
Penn. 

Judge Clayton is the eldest of four 
brothers, one of whom, Powell Clay- 
ton, served in the Federal Cavalry, in 
the War of 186 1-5, and rose to the 
rank of Brigadier General ; after the 
War, he was elected Governor of Ar- 
kansas, and in 1871, U. S. Senator from 
that State. William Clayton was Judge 
of the 9th District of Arkansas, but 
resigned to accept the position of U. 
S. Attorney for that State. He is now 
an extensive Cotton Planter, cultivat- 
ing 5000 acres of land. 



IIISTOKY OF CHESTER. 



409 



Hugh Lloyd, one of the Associate 
Judges of Delaware County, father of 
the present Hugh P. Lloyd of Darby, 
who was commissioned by Governor 
Mifflin, in 1792, held his office for 
thirty-three years, and then handed in 
his resignation written in these words : 

" I, the within named Associate Judge of 
Delaware County, aged 83 years, 10 months 
and 9 days, by attending every Court for 33 
years — one Orphans' Court only, excepted — 
having performed the duties of the within 
commission to the best of my judgment and 
al)ility, do by these presents resign and sur- 
render up my said commission to his Excel- 
lency, the Governor, with the hope that a suc- 
cessor may be appointed to the satisfaction of 
the majority of said county. In testimony 
whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 31st 
day of December, A. D., 1825. With senti- 
ments of regard, &c., Hugh Lloyd." 

During my researches, I have been 
enabled to make nearly a complete 
list of the Justices of the Supreme Pro- 
vincial Court of the Province of Penn- 
sylvania. 



16S4. 

Dr. Nicholas Moore, C.J. 
William Welch, 
William Wood, 
Rubert Turner, 
John Eckley. 

1685. 
James Harrison, C. J., 
John Claypoole, 
Arthur Cooke, 
John Eckley, 
William Clark.t 

1686. 
Arthur Cook, C. J., 
William Clark, 
John Symcock, 
John Cann, 
James Harrison. 



303- 



1690. 
■ Arthur Cook, C. J 
William Clark, 
Joseph Growden. 

1690. 
5th 7 mi. I C. R 
Arthur Cook, 
John Symcock, 
Joseph Growden, 
Peter Alrichs, 
Thomas Wynn. 

1690. 
Reorganized. 
John Symcock, C. J., 
William Clark, 
Arthur Cooke, 
GrifTith Jones, 
Edward Blake. 



«■ Nicholas Moore, first Chief Justice of 
Pennsylvania, was a Doctor of Medicine, and 
is so called in old deeds, so says Wm. J. 
Buck, although in his History of More/and, 
p. 189, he gives a sketch of" the Chief Justice, 
vol. 6, Colh'cfioiis of the Historical Society of 
J\-niisy/va)iia,M\d calls him an Attorney; he 
has since discovered that he was in error. 

f Wm. Clark, in 1684, had a commission as 
(ieneral Justice, i F. R., 60; sat in the .Su- 
preme Provincial Court, in 1685, i /'./'., 95 ; 
(}eneral Justice till 1702, i P. A', 120, 142. 



1718. 
David Lloyd, C. J.,"— ^ 
William Trent, 
Richard Hill. 

1722. 
David Lloyd, C. J., 
Richard Hill, 
Robert Asheton. 

1724. 
David Lloyd, C. J., 
William Trent, 
Richard Hill, 
Robert Asheton. 

1726. 
David Lloyd, C. J., 
Richard Hill, 
Jeremiah Langhorne. 

1731- 
Isaac Norris, C. J., decV d , 
James Logan, C. J., 
Jeremiah Langhorne, 
Dr. Thomas Graeme. 

1739- 
Jer. Langhorne, C. J., 
Dr. Thomas Graeme, 
Thomas Griffiths. 

1743- 
John Kinsey, C. J., 
Dr. Thomas Graeme, 
William Till. 

1750. 
William Allen, C. J., 
Lawrence Growden, 
Caleb Cowpland, (i^/i?(/i758. 

1758. 
William Coleman. 

1764. 
William Allen, C.J. , 
William Coleman. 
Alexander Stedman. 

1767. 
William Allen, C. J., 
William Coleman, 
John Lawrence, 
Thomas Willing. 



1693. 
Andrew Robson, C. J. 
William Salway, 
John Cann, 
Edward Blake, 
Anthony Morris.* 

1698. 
Joseph Growden, 
Cornelius Empson. 

1699. 
Edward Shippen, C J., 
Cornelius Empson, 
William Biles, 
John Guest. 

1 701. 
John Guest, C. J., 
Joseph Growden, declined, 
Caleb Pusey, declined, 
Thomas Masters. 

1702. 
John Guest, C.J., 

William Clark, 

Capt. Samuel Finney. 
1703- 

William Clark, C. J., 

John Guest, 

Edward Shippen, 

Thomas Masters, 

Samuel Finney. 
1705- 

John Guest, C. J., 

Joseph Growden, 

Jasper Yeates, 

Samuel Finney, 

William Trent. 
17.6. 

Roger Mompesson, C J., 

Joseph Growdon, 

Jasper Yeates, 

Samuel Finney, 

William Trent. 
1711. 

Roger Mompesson, C. J., 

George Roche, 

Anthony Palmer. 
1715. 

Joseph Growdon, C. J., 

William Trent, 

Jonathan Dickinson, 

George Roche, resigned, 

Robert Asheton. 



My authority for the above lists are : 
The Colonial Records ; Votes of As- 
sembly ; Penn and Logan Correspon- 
dence ; Mc Call's List, and Westcott's 
Phi lade If hia. 

Li. 

The following is a list of some old 

lawyers of the Province of Pennsyl- 

* Anthony Morris, appointed in place of 
Cann, -Vug. m, 1694. 



1774. 
Benjamin Chew, C. J., 
John Law-rence, 
Thomas Willing, 
John Morton. 



470 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



vania, whose names are not in any 
printed record that I am aware of. 
The dates are those occurring when 
I first found the names mentioned : 

Dr. Tliomas Spry, who has the 
honor of being our oldest lawyer, was 
compelled by the rule of 1677, for- 
bidding Attorneys to practice in the 
Courts, to resort to the practice of 
medicine, while waiting for brighter 
days. 



1675. 


1726. 


Dr. Thomas Spry. 


Robert Assheton. 


1677. 


1731- 


John Matthews, 


Samuel Hasel, 


Henry Jones, 


Jer. Langhorne, 


Abraham Man. 


James Logan. 


1683. 


1734- 


John White. 


John Ross. 


1684. 


1735. 


John Moore. 


. Richard Peters, 
/ Thomas Lawrence, 


1685. 


Samuel Hersent, 


Lawyer Riddleson, 


Patrick Robinson. 


John Remington. 


1686. 


1738. 


David Lloyd, 


^ohn Kinsey. 


Samuel Jennings. 


1746 


1693. 


James Read. 


George Foreman. 


1749- 


1697. 


James Delaplaine. 


Jasper Yeates. 


1750. 


1700. 


Ed. Shippen, Jr., 


William Assheton. 


William Allen. 


John Guest, 


1752. 


Thomas Story. 


James Galloway, 


1705- 


Louis Gordon, 


J. Reignier. 


William Coleman. 


1706. 


1753- 


Charles Pickering, 


George Reed. 


Roger Mompesson, 


1754- 


George Lowthcr, 


Abm. Poole. 


Thomas Clarke. 


1755- 


1708. 


Julm Dickinson. 


Thomas McNeniara 


1763. 


1713- 


Nicholas Wain, 


Charles Brockden. 


Richard Riley. 


1717. 


1767. 


Andrew Hamilton. 


'Ihomas Willing. 


1720. 


1769. 


James Alexander, 


Andrew Allen, 


James Parnell. 


Isaac Hunt. 


1723- 


'785. 


William Assheton. 


Edward Allen, 


1725. 


William Anderson, 


James Graeme. 


John Bartram, 




John Barker. 



■ If 1 understand the minutes of the 
Upland Record \)Xo^Qx\y , the following 
persons practiced as Attorneys of that 
('ourt, though not learned in theT.aw. 



1677. 

Robberd Hutchinson, 
Lasse Cock, 
John Moll, 
John Shackerly, 
James Sandilands, 
Edmund Cantwell. 



1679. 
Eph. Herman. 



Will W^irner. 



John Champion. 



The following list of Attorneys of 
Chester County, since 1750, is taken 
from the records at West Chester. See 
also, the Historical Collectio?is of Ches- 
ter County, by J. Smith Futhey, Esq., 
who was the last Deputy Attorney 
General, of Chester County, in 1850: 



1752. 


Stephen Watts. 


David Furry. 


1770. 


1753- 


Abel Evans, 


Thomas Otway, 


Thomas Hood, 


John Price, 


James Lukins. 


George Read. 


1 771. 


1754. 


Joseph Read, 


William Morris, 


George Noarth, 


Benjamin Chew. 


Jacob Bankson, 


1755- 


Francis Johnson, 


Samuel Johnson, 


Asheton Humphreys. 


,Thomas M'Kean, 


1772. 


David Henderson, 


Richard Tilghman, 


WiUiam Whitebread, Jr. 


John Lawrence, 


1756. 


P. Zachery Lloyd. 


George Ross, 


1773- 


John Osmond. 


Christian Hook, 


1760. 


Wm. Lawrence Blair, 


John Morris. 


Phineas Bond, 


1763. 


John Stedman, 


John Mather, Jr., 


John McPherson, 


James Tilghman. 


William Lewis. 


1764. 


1774- 


Hugh Hughes, 


Ed. Tilghman, 


John Currie, 


William Bradford, Jr. 


Elisha Price, 


Gunning Bedford. 


Lindsay Coates. 


I77S. 


1765- 


Andrew Robeson, 


Alex. Porter, 


lohn Vancoast. 


Nich. Vandyke, 


1776. 


Alex'r Wilcocks, 


William Prince Gibbs 


Joshua Yeates, 


Collisou Read. 


Stephen Porter, 


1778. 


Richard Peters, Jr., 


J. Dickinson Sergeant 


James Biddle, 


John Pancoast. 


James Allen, 


1779. 


Henry Elwes, 


Edward Bird, 


James Loyre, 


Henry Osborne, 


James Hunt, 


George Campbell, 


David Thomi)son, 


Jared Ins^ersoU. 


James Vandyke. 


17S0. 


1767. 


Moses Levy. 


William Hicks, 


1 781. 


James Wilson. 


John Co.ve, 


1769. 


Wm. Moore Smith, 


Jacob Rush, 


Nathaniel Potts. 


Miers Fisher, 


1782. 


Daniel Clymer, 


Joseph Reed, 


John Kalcy, 


JohnF.I\Iifnin, 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



471 



John Viiiing. 


John Craig Wells, 


1783. 


John Cadwalader, 


J. Wilks Kittera, 


John Moore. 


Hem-y Hale Graham, 


1790. 


William Rawle. 


Thomas B. Dick, 


1784. 


Abm. Chapman, 


William Ewing. 


John Thompson, 


1785. 


Marks John Biddle, 


Jacob R. Howell, 


Isaac Telfair. 


John Ross, 


1791. 


John A. Hanna, 


Ro. Henry Dunkin, 


Joseph B. McKean, 


Seth Chapman. 


John Todd. 


1792. 


17S6. 


Miles Merwin, 


Robert Hudson, 


Robert Frazer, 


Charles Smith, 


John Price. 


John Young, 


1793- 


Ben. Chew, Jr., 


Tho. W. Tallman, 


Ben. R. Morgan, Jr., 


John H. Brintoii, 


Richard Wharton, 


Evan Rice Evans, 


Thomas Memminger. 


Joseph Hemphill, 


1787. 


Michael Keppele, 


David Smith, 


John Shippen, 


James Wade, 


Hen. K. Kilmuth, 


John Joseph Henry, 


Alex. W. Foster. 


William Atlee, 


1794- 


William Montgomery, 


Jacob Richards, 


Sampson Levy, 


Joseph Hopkinson, 


James Hopkins, 


Wm, Martin, M. D. 


Samuel Roberts, 


1795- 


Matthew Baldwin, 


Jona. Harvey Hurst, 


James A. Bayard. 


James Hunter, Jr., ">>- 


1788. 


James Milner, 


Thomas Armstrong, 


James Latimer, 


Peter S. Du Ponceau, 


John Cloyd, 


Jasper Yeates, 


Joseph Reid, 


Peter Hoofnagle, 


Isaac Wayne.; 


Joseph Hubley, 


1797. 


William Graham. 


Wash. Lee Hannum. 


1789. 


1798. 


John Hallowell, 


Charles Chauncey, Jr., 


Joseph Thomas, 


1799- 


Robert Porter, 


Jona. T. Haight, 


Charles Heatley, 


John Taylor, 


Anthony Morris, 


Wm. Hemphill. 



J. vSmith Futhey, Esq., of the Ches- 
ter County Bar, writes to me, that the 
above list embraces all the members 
of the Chester County Bar from 1750 
to 1800 ; that many of them were re- 
presentatives of Philadelphia and other 
counties, and only practiced occasion- 
ally in Chester County. In 'the last 
century, a great deal of the law busi- 
ness of the county was transacted by 
Philadelphia lawyers. After the De- 
claration of Independence, all Attor- 
neys who desired to continue in prac- 
tice, were required to take the "Test 
Oath," to support the Colonics in their 



struggle for national existence. I 
omit the names of those repeated in 
Mr. Futhey's list, as it proves nothing ; 
for the "Black List" gives the names 
of traitors. The list embraces the 
names of many who rose to distinc- 
tion, but I will only mention Chester 
County men, or those connected with 
its affairs, making one exception in 
favor of Joseph Hopkinson, Esq., born 
Nov. 12, 1770, the author of Hail 
Columbia ! Thomas McKean was a 
n ative of the cou irty, one of the sign- 
ers of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court, and finally, Governor of the 
State. His son, Joseph B. McKean, 
succeeded Jared Ingersoll as Attorney 
General, and was afterwards President 
Judge of the District Court of Phila- 
delphia. James Wilson was a great 
lawyer and a great orator ; he became 
a Ju.stice of the Supreme Court of the 
United States ; was the father of Bird 
Wilson, and one of the Presiding 
Judges of the county Courts. Jasper 
Yeates became one of the Associate 
Justices of the Supreme Court of the 
State. Joseph Hemphill was born in 
Thornbury, He was the first President 
Judge of the District Court of Phila- 
delphia, appointed in 181 1 ; resigned 
in 181 8. John Joseph Henry, Esq., 
was President Judge of the Courts of 
Chester County, from Feb., 1794, to 
May, 1800, after the formation of 
Delaware County. 

In the Historical Collections of Clies- 
tcr County, Mr. Futhey says : 

" Trom the estalilishmcnt of the Colonial 
Coveinment, in 1683, to the year 1793, a period 
of 1 10 years, the criminal business of Chester 
County was conducted on the part of the pro- 
secutions by the Attorney General in person ; 
in the latter year the first Deputy Attorney 
General was appointed, and from thence to 
the year 1S50, the pleas of the Commonwealth 



172 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



were proscciUed by Deputies appointed hy 
ihc AtlDiiiey General, with the exception of a 
brief period which will be noticed hereafter. 
In 1850, an Act of Assembly was passed creat- 
ing the office of District Attorney, and since 
then, officers elected in pursuance of this Act, 
have conducted the prosecutions. The Attor- 
neys General of the Province who conducted 
the criminal business of Chester Co.-, were : 



John White, appointed, 


Oct 25, 


1683 


Samuel Hersent, " 


Jan. 16, 


1686 


D.-ivid Lloyd, 


April 24, 


1686 


John Moore, 


May 19, 


1698 


William Assheton, " 




1700 


Par. Parmyter, " 


— , 


1 701 


(jcorge Lowther, " 


. April 5, 


1705 


Thomas Clarke, " 


June 24, 


1708 


.Andrew Hamilton, " 


Sept. 7, 


1717 


los. Growdcn, Jr., " 


June s, 


1725 


John Kinsey, 


• July 6, 


1738 


Tench Francis, " 




1741 


ISenjamin Chew, " 


. Jan. 14, 


1755 


Andrew Allen. 


Nov. 4, 


1769 



I have added to Mr. Futhey's list 
the names of John Moore, Par. Par- 
myter, Wm. Assheton and Thomas 
Clarke, whom he overlooked. Of the 
latter, Dr. Smith says, \). 217: "At 
the May term, (1709,) Thomas Clark 
appeared in open Court and was quali- 
fied Attorney General for the County 
of Chester, according to law. This is 
the first ai)pearance of such an officer, 
though, occasionally, an Attorney 
has represented the Crown in a par- 
ticular case." The Doctor was mis- 
taken, of course ; the above list dis- 
clcses the fact that there were prose- 
cuting officers in the Crown for over 
^4 years before Clarke's appointment 
as Attorney General. There may 
have been a little delay in the full or- 
ganization of the Courts after Penn 
took possession, but evidently the 
I'vUglish system was in full operation 
at the time of Hersent's appointment, 
which was, 1 have no doubt, the first 
regular one, but Jolin White was ap- 
pointed by the Council to prosecute' 
offenders, again and again, in the 
different ( ourts. u]) to 1685. 



Mr. Futhey says : 

"Andrew Hamilton, liie fifth (9th ) .Vttor- 
ney General, appointed in 1717, was one of 
the most extraordinary men who lived during 
the early Provincial History of Pennsylvania. 
He was probably the greatest lawyer of his 
time in this country, and a man of irrepressi- 
ble energy of character. Besides being At- 
torney General, he became President of the 
Executive Council, vSpeaker of the House of 
Assembly, and filled several other stations 
with integrity and ability. ' Bush Hill,' where 
he resided, he received with other lands, for 
his services to the Penn family. His son, 
James Hamilton, was repeatedly Governor of 
Pennsylvania, between the years 1748 and 
1771. 

Joseph Growden, Jr., Attorney General 
from 1725 to 1738, was a Judge of the Su- 
preme Court from 1 705 to 17 15, and Chief 
Justice from 17 15 to 17 18, and was a man of 
some legal and literary distinction. He in- 
volved himself in a conflict with the Provin- 
cial government, by publishing comments on 
the character of William Penn. The Grow- 
den's came to the Province at a very early 
date, and for nearly a century, seem to have 
been connected in different ways with its 
Courts and Bar. William Rawle, is said to 
have been a descendant." 

I feel almost positively certain that 
Mr. Futhey has confounded the father 
with the son in the above sketch. 
The Joseph Growden, who was Speaker 
of the Assembly in 1700, see i J^ro- 
vincial Records, 602, and Judge of 
the Supreme Provincial Court in 1698, 
(he sat at Chester 8 mo. 3, 1698,) 
was evidently the elder Growden, who 
for several years had been in the Coun- 
cil from Bucks ; no doubt he was after- 
wards the Chief Justice, and his son 
Joseph, who was called Junior, to dis- 
tinguish him from his father, was tlic 
Attorney General. Wescotf, in Jiis 
Philadelphia, says, the Chief Justice 
died in 1736. Lawrence Growden, 
was an Associate Judge of the Supreme 
Conrl in 1750; whether lie was a son 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



478 



or brother of the Attorney General, 
I do not know ; most Hkely a brother, 
for it is only men of matnre age that 
reach that position. 

"John Kinsey was Attorney General from 
1738 to 1 74 1, became Chief Justice in 1743, 
prior to \\hich, he had been in extensive prac- 
tice. He was undoubtedly an educated law- 
yer, as well as a man of fine natural parts. 

'I'ench Francis, Attorney Ciencral, from 
1741 lo 1755; ^\■as one of the most eminent 
lawyers of the Province. He was a relative 
of Sir Philip Francis, one of the reputed au- 
thors of the celebrated letters of Junius, and 
was the maternal grandfather of Chief Justice 
William Tilghman. 

Benjamin Chew, the ninth (13th) Attor- 
ney General, received his professional educa- 
tion at the Temple, in London. He was At- 
torney General from 1755 to 1769, and was 
President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas 
of Philadelphia. In 1774, he was appointed 
Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, but being op- 
posed to the Revolution, he retired from the 
Bench, in 1776, the last Chief Justice of the 
Crown. In 1 79 1 he became President Judge 
of the High Court of Errors and Appeals of 
Pennsylvania, and continued in that relation 
until the abolition of that Court in 1806. He 
was for a long time at the head of his profes- 
sion, and died in 1810, at the age of 87 years." 

I do not think, nor can I find, that 
Benjamin Chew was ever President 
Judge of the Common Pleas, so called. 
He was Recorder of Philadelphia from 
1755 to 1774, and in that capacity 
was Presiding Judge of the City Court 
which was established by the City 
Charter granted by William Pcnn, 
in 1 701. The County Court having 
all the power of our Common Pleas, 
Quarter Sessions and Orphans' Courts, 
was established by the Royal Charter 
to Pennsylvania. The first President 
Judge of that Court that I have been 
able to find, was Alexander Stedman, 
who occupied that position on June 
2, 1759, and there is no record of 
any change until Nov. 18, 1780. when 



Plunkett Fleeson was appointed under 
the act of 1780, Presiding Judge. It 
is hardly probable, therefore, that Ben- 
jamin Chew was ever President of the 
County Court of Common Pleas of 
Philadelphia. David Paul Brown, in 
his Forum, 2 vol., p. 69, says : "Ben- 
jamin Chew was admitted to the Bar 
in 1746; was appointed President of 
the Court of Common Pleas, and was 
succeeded by John Coxe ; Mr. Coxe 
was admitted in 1 780. ' ' He does not 
appear even to have known that Judge 
Coxe's name was John D. Coxe. He 
was the President Judge of the Com- 
mon Pleas, and succeeded James Bid- 
die in 1797, and was succeeded by 
William Tilghman, in 1805, and not 
by Jacob Rush as he has it ; so Mr. 
Brown is no authority. 

" Andrew Allen was the last Attorney-Gene- 
ral under the King. He was also a member 
of Congress, and of the Committee of Safety. 
On the breaking out of the Revolution, to 
which he was opposed, he put himself under 
the protection of General Howe at Trenton. 
He was faithful to his Master, and his estate 
was confiscated by the new government to 
whose sovereignty he refused to submit. He 
went to England where he died in 1825, at the 
age of 80 years. He is said to have been a 
very accomplished man. He was a grand-son 
of Andrew Hamilton, already noticed. 

In 1777, the bills of indictment on file in the 
clerk's office (of Chester County) are signed 
by John Morris, Jr., as the Attorney for the 
Commonwealth, from 1778 to 1793. The At- 
torneys-General, who signed the bills, were, 
Jonathan Dickinson, Sergeant, from 1778 to 
1 780, William Bradford, Jr., from 1 780 lo 1 79 1 , 
and Jared Ingersoll, from August 1791 to Feb- 
ruary 1793. At May sessions 1793, the first 
Deputy Attorney-General officiated in our 
courts." 

Among the Deputy Attorneys for 
prosecuting the Pleas of the Common- 
wealth, previous to the removal of the 
Courts from Chester, were Samuel Ed- 
wards, Archibald T. Dick. Edward 



474 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



Darlington, John K. Zcilin and Robert 
E. Hannum, Esquires^ 

By Act of Assembly of May i, 1850, 
P. L., 654, the ofifice of Deputy At- 
torney General ceased to exist, and in- 
stead thereof, District Attorneys were 
to be elected on the second Tuesdays 
of October for three years, from per- 
sons learned in the law. Since that 
time the Pleas of the Commonwealth 
in Delaware County have been prose- 
cuted by: 

Thomas H. Speak man, -i . . 1850 

Robert McCay, Jr., . . 1851 

Edward Darlington, . 1851 

Jesse Bishop, . . . 1854 

Edward A. Price, . . 1857 

John Hibberd, . . . i860 

Francis F. Brooke, . . 1863 

C. D. M. Broomhall, . . 1866 

George E. Darlington, . . 1869 

David Morgan Johnson, . 1872 

Vincent Gilpin Robinson, . 1876 

The Clerks of the Court of Dela- 
ware County, previous to the removal 
of the seat of Justice to Media, as far 
as I have been able to ascertain were, 
William Richardson Atlee, appointed 
Sept. 28, 1789; James Barnard, 1800; 
Thomas B. Dick, 1806 ; Benjamin 
Pearson, Captain Thomas Robinson, 
Henry Meyers, John Richards, James 
Huston, John K. Zeilin, and Samuel 
Weaver. 

The following is a list of the mem- 
bers of the Delaware County Bar, from 
the formation of the County to the pre- 
sent date : 

Names. IVhen admitted. 

■ , 1783 

Nov. 9, 1789 
Feb. 9, 1790 
July 30, 1792 

— . 1794 

Nov. — , 1794 
April 30, 1806 
April 19, 1807 
Jan. 20, 1812 
April 13, " 
July 30, 1814 



Henry Hale Graham, 
William Graham, 
Thomas B. Dick, 
Robert Frazer, 
Jacob Richards, 
Dr. William Martin, 
Samuel Edward, 
John Edwards, Jr., . 
Thom.is D. Andci^on, 
Charles Harland, 
John Kerlin, 



* Declared inelij^ible becau.se of residing 
out of the f'ountv, nnd tlio T'oiirt appointed 
McCav. 



Isaac D. Barnard, . 
Archibald T. Dick, . 
Samuel J. Withy, 
Matthias Richards Sayres, 
Geo. Richards Grantham, 
Jo'hn James Richards, 
Robert Beale, 
Edward Darlington, 
William Martin, 
Edward Richards, . 
Nathaniel Vernon, . 
John P. Griffiths, . 
Mordecai Taylor, 
John K. Zeilin, 
Robert E. Hannum, 
Peter Hill Engle, 
Joseph Williams, 
John D. Pearcc, 
John M. Broomall, . 
Paul Beck Carter, . 
Jesse M. Griffiths, . 
Samuel B. Thomas, 
Robert McCay, 
George Palmer, 
Henry B. Edwards, 
George W. Ormsby, 
Joseph R. Morris, . 
Enoch Taylor, 
Harlan Ingram, 
Thomas H. Maddock, 
Charles D. Manley, 
Ezra Levis, . 
Jesse Bishop, 
Thomas Leiper, 
Thomas J. Clayton, . 
A. Lewis Smith, 
John Hibberd, 
George E. Darlington, 
Edward A. Price, 
William Ward, 
Joseph R. T. Coates, 
Orson Flagg Bullard, 
John Eyre Shaw, 
David M. Johnson, 
John B. Hinkson, 
James Barton, Jr., 
William B. Broomall, 
C. D. H. Broomhall, 
George M. Pardoe, . 
Alexander Reed, 
Orlando Harvey, 
William H. Dickinson, 
Perry M. Wa.shabaugh, 
Henry C. Howard, . 
William J. Harvey, 
Samuel Emlen, 
V. Gilpin Robinson, 
William L Patterson, 
C. Rush Barr, 
David Rose, 
John v. Rice, 
Edw. H. Hall, 
James V. Maginn, . 
W. Vance Harpur, 
George M. Booth, 
George B. Lindsay, 
Henry Graham Ashmead, 



Wheu admitted . 


June 16, 


1816 


April 8 


.. 


July 22 


" 


date unknown 


Jan. .9, 


1819 


Oct. 16, 


1820 


April 9, 


1821 


July 23, 


" 


July 28, 


1823 


April 13, 


1824 




1825 


July 27, 


" 


April 10, 


1827 


July 27, 


1829 


April 13, 


1830 


April 27, 


1836 


Nov. 27, 


1838 


Aug. 24, 


1840 


May 23, 


1842 


Nov. 25, 


1844 


Feb. 26, 


1846 


Feb. 22, 


1847 


Nov. 22, 




Feb. 28, 


1848 


Aug. " 


" 


Nov. 27, 


1848 


Feb. 26, 


1849 


May 28, 




May 27, 


1850 


May 27, 


1851 


Nov. 24, 


1851 


Nov. 28, 


1853 


Aug. -, 


1855 


May 26, 


1856 


Feb. 25, 


1856 


Aug. 27, 


1859 


Feb. 25, 


1861 


May 15, 


1862 


Aug. 24, 


1863 


Nov. 23, 


" 


Dec. 28, 


■' 


Nov. 29, 


1864 


Mar. 23, 


1868 


Sept. 28, 


1868 


Nov. 25, 


1868 


" 28, 
Nov. 23, 


1869 


Nov. 23, 


1869 


Sept. 27, 




Nov. 29, 


1870 


Aug. 29, 


1872 


date unknown 


Aug. 25, 


^873 


Nov. 24, 


1873 


date unkr 


own 


Nov. 24, 


1873 


Sep. 23, 


1373 


Dec. I, 


" 


Feb. 26, 


1874 


Feb. 23, 


1875 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



475 



IVhen admitted. 

Sept. 23, 1875 

Jan. 17, 1876 

Oct. 9, 1876 

Nov. 6, 1876 

Jan. 3, 1876 

Sept. 2o, 1876 

Feb. 5, 1877 



Names. 
John T. Reynolds, 
H. M. Fussell, 
John F. Young, 
William B. Heyburn, 
Wm. M. Thompson, 
Alfred Tyson, 
George W. Bliss, 
John B. Hannum, 
William B. Huston, 
Geo. B. F. Fisher, . 
Albert T. Goldbeck, 



A good anecdote is related about 
Robert Frazer, E.sq. , an old- time mem- 
ber of the Delaware County Bar., A 
client, a well-known close-fisted old 
miller, called on him one day for some 
advice in reference to a difficulty about 
his mill-dam and water-power privi- 
leges. He found Mr. Frazer in his of- 
fice, legs in comfortable position, high- 
er than his head, taking his ease and 
smoking. The miller taking a seat, 
proceeded to relate his grievance at 
length, and then asked what he should 
do. Frazer still leaning back and puffing 
his segar paid no attention to the ques- 
tion. At last the impatient client burst 

out with: "D n it, Mr. Frazer! 

Did you hear what I said?" With a 
humorous twinkle of his eye Frazer re- 
plied, "Oh, yes, but do you expect a 
mill to run without water?" 

I have endeavored to make a list of 
the Registers of Wills and Recorders 
of Deeds of Chester County. From 
all I could gather, Jacob Symcock was 
Deputy Register General under James 
Claypole in 1686, and his brother John 
Symcock, Jr., was Deputy Recorder 
under Thomas Story, about 1700. 
David Lloyd held those offices for some- 
time previous to 1724, when Joseph 
Parker was appointed ; he died in 1 766, 
and no doubt Henry Hale Graham held 
the office from 1766 to 1777. He was 
in office Jan. 30, 1775. Thomas Tay- 
lor was appointed by Act of Mar. 14, 
1777- John Beaton appointed Ajjril 



8, 1782. Persifer Frazer, April 8, 1786. 
The following is a list of Recorders 
of Deeds and Registers of Wills of 
Delaware County. 



1789 James Huston, 

1796 Joseph Taylor, 

1800 James Sill, Jr., 

iSio Nich. F. Walter, 

[819 Thomas Forsythe, 

[821 Fred. Fairlamb, 

1826 Nich. F. Walter, 

1833 Fred. R. Cutler, 

1834 Canby S. Smith,* 

1836 Jacob C. Berstler, 

1837 Charles P. Walter, 



1843 
1845 
1849 
1856 



1864 
1868 
1873 
1873 
1875 



William R. Atlee, 
Davis Bevan, 
James Barnard, 
Joseph Engle, 
Benj. Pearson, 
Thomas Robinson, 
Henry Myers, 
John K. Zeilin, 
John Hinkson, 
John Richards, 
Saimrel Weaver, 
Joseph Weaver, Jr 



The following have been elected 
since the publication of Dr. Geori^c 
Smith'' s History. 

Sheriffs of Delaware County. 
AbrahamR. Vanzant, 1863 Evan W. Bartleson, 1869 
Caleb Hoopes, 1866 Joseph Webster, 1872 

Charles W. Mathues, 1876 

Register of Wills and Clerk 

OF the Orphans' Court. 

Thomas Lees, . . 1875 

The first sheriff under the English 
rule on the Delaware, was Edmund 
Cantwell, in 1672. Smith, p. 96. 

The first Convention to revise the 
Constitution of Pennsylvania, met July 
15, 1776, and was continued by ad- 
journment until September 28th of the 
same year. Benjamin Franklin was 
the President, and the members from 
Chester County were, Benjamin Bar- 
tholomew, John Jacobs, Robert Smith, 
Thomas Strawbridge, Samuel Cunning- 
ham, John Hart, John Mackey and 
John Fleming. The Convention au- 
thorized the election of a Council of 
Censors in October, 1783, who first 
met on November i6th of that year, 
and continued their sittings until Sept. 
25, 1784. They issued an address re- 

* He was appointed to fill the vacancy caused 
by the death of Cutler. At October election 
1873, Jacob C. Berstler was elected Recorder 
and Register, but died November 28tli ; so Mr. 
Smith retained the office until next election. 



476 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



commending various reforms, but ad- 
vised against calling a convention to 
revise the Constitution. The Censors 
from Chester County were Gen. An- 
thony Wayne and John Evans ; the lat- 
ter died, and James Moore was elected 
in his stead, and took his seat Dec. 30, 
1783. 

The Constitutional Convention of 

1 789, was called in pursuance of a reso- 
lution of the General Assembly of 
Pennsylvania, and held their first meet- 
ing Nov. 24, 1789, and elected Thomas 
Mifflin, President; Joseph Redman, 
Secretary. The members from Ches- 
ter County, were William Gibbons, 
Thomas Bull, Thomas Ross and James 
Boyd. For Delaware County, Henry 
Hale Graham and John Sellers. Judge 
Graham died during the sitting of the 
Convention, at Philadelphia, Jan. 23, 

1 790, and Nathaniel Newlin was elect- 
ed to fill the vacancy. 

The New Constitution was adopted 
September 2, 1790. 

The Convention of 1836, called by 
Actof Assembly of Mar. 29, 1836, con- 
sisted of 133 members, and met at 
Harrisburg, May 2, 1837, and elected 
the Hon. John Sergeant, President. 
The Senatorial delegates representing 
Delaware, Chester and Montgomery 
Counties, were Thomas S. Bell, David 
Lyons and Henry Sheetz. The rep- 
resentative delegate from Delaware 
County was George Serrill, of Darby. 

The Constitutional Convention of 
1872, held in accordance with the Act 
of Assembly of April 21, 1872, met at 
Harrisburg, Nov. 12, 1872, and ad- 
journed to meet in Philadelphia, Jan. 
7, 1873, ^'""^^ \^^\^ its meetings in the 
Church in Spruce Street, east of Sixth 
Street, north side. Now called "The 

HoRACK BiNNEV PUP.LIC ScHOOL. " 

The H')n. William M. Meredith, the 



greatest lawyer of the day, and late 
Secretary of the U. S. Treasury, was 
cho.sen President, and died during the 
sitting of the Convention. John H. 
Walker, Esq., was elected to fill the 
vacancy. The delegates to the Con- 
vention from Delaware and Chester 
Counties were John M. Broomall, 
William Darlington and Jos. Hemp- 
hill. The Convention completed its 
labors on Nov. 3, 1873, ^"^^ the New 
Constitution was submitted to the peo- 
ple on Dec. 16, 1873, for ratification, 
and adopted that day, by a majority 
of 145,150 votes. 

I add here a List of the Members of 
the Chester County Bar, from the 
division of the County to the present time. 
J. Smith Futhey kindly made this list 
for me, he says: "This list embraces 
strictly Chester County men, most of 
them born and reared in the County. 
There are some names of Chester Coun- 
ty men who read law here, for a time 
practiced here and then removed else- 
where ; and there are names of others ad- 
mitted elsewhere, and who afterwards 
came here to reside and practice." 



Joseph Hemphill, . 


Aug. — , 


1793 


Alexander M. Foster, 


Nov. — 


" 


Isaac Wayne, 


. Aug. - 


1795 


Washington Lee Hannum, 


Feb. - 


1797 


John Taylor, 


May - 


1799 


William Hemphill, 


" " 




William Dewecs, 


Aug 20, 


1800 


Isaac Darlington, 


Nov. 3, 


1801 


Samuel Jacobs, 


About 


1803 


John Duer, 


" 


1804 


Charles Worth Humphrey, 


" 


1806 


Reuben Eachus, 


. Nov. 14, 


1807 


Ziba Pyle, . 


About 


1808 


JeflFries Moore, 


Aug. I, 


1809 


Clement B. Buckley, 


" 2, 


i8i4 


Wm. H. Dillingham, 


May 7, 


1816 


Isaac D. Bernard, . 


" " 


" 


Townsend Haines, 


. Feb. 3, 


1818 


Jesse Conrad, 


. Aug. 2, 


1819 


Wm. Williamson, . 


. July 31, 


1820 


Wm. S. Haines, 


. Jan. 31, 


1821 


Thomas S. Bell, 


May I, 




Henry H. Van Amringe, 


" " 


" 


Samuel Parke, 


Aug. 9, 


" 


Abraham Marshall, 


. July 31, 


1822 


Daniel Buckwalter, 


Auj;. 3. 


1824 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



477 



John D. Pettit, 


Nov. I, 1824 


Matthias Pennypacker, 


Jan. 31, 1825 


B'rancis James, 


May 2, " 


Joseph J. Lewis, 


May " " 


Lewis G. Pearce, . 


" " " 


Owen Stover, 


Aug. I, " 


Ben. Bartholomew, 


Jan. 31, 1826 


William Darlington, 


" " " 


James M. Kinnard, 


May I, " 


Davis H. lloopes. . 


" " " 


Wm. McK. Ball, . 


May 5, 1828 


John H. Bradley, . 


June g, " 


Robert B. Dodson, 


Aug. 4, " 


James A. Hemphill, 


Nov. 4, " 


Mark Denny, 


Feb. 13, 1829 


Joseph Hemphill, . 


Aug. 3, " 


Richard Baily, 


Nov. 3, " 


Persifor Frazer Smith, 


" " " 


Lea Bennett, 


Mar. 9, 1830 


John Rutter, 


Nov. 2, " 


Uriah V. Pennypacker, 


Dec. 13, 1831 


John Hill Brinton, 


Oct. 6, 1832 


John Hickman, 


April 9, 1833 


Horatio G. Worrall, 


Aug. 4, 1834 


Addison May, 


Sept. 15, 1835 


William Wheeler, . 


M^r. 16, 1836 


Ferdinand E. Hayes, 


May II, 1839 


Wm. Penn Miner, . 


Feb. 4, 1840 


James H. Bull, 


Sept. 15, " 


B. Franklin Pyle, . 


Nov. 3, " 


John S. Bowen, 


May 15, 1842 


George W. Pearce, 


Aug. 2, " 


George W. Miles, . 


Nov. 8, " 


Matthew A. Stanley, 


Nov. 10, " 


J. Smith Futhey, 


Feb. 7, 1843 


James Davis, 


Mar. 16, " 


Joseph B. Townsend, 


May 13, " 


William M. Bull, . 


June 12, " 


Howard Darlington, 


Nov. 7, " 


Isaac D. Pyle, 


Mar. 12, 1844 


Washington Townsend, 


May 7, " 


John P. Baily, 


May 8, " 


Edward H. Williamson, 


May 8, " 


Samuel B. Thomas, 


. June II, " 


James B. Everhart, . 


Feb. 4, 1845 


Joseph P. Wilson, . 


June 10, " 


James A. Gilmore, . 


" " " 


William Butler, 


Dec. 8, " 


William E. Barber, 


. Jan. 30, 1846 


W. Ross Cunningham, 


April 28, " 


Henry C. Townsend, 


. July 27, " 


Jas. Patterson Fleming, 


Aug. 5, 1847 


Paschall Woodward, 


Nov. 4, " 


Robert E. Monaghan, 


April 20, 1848 


Samuel Rush, 


June 14, " 


James M. Meredith, 


Sept. 13, " 


James L. Jones, 


Dec. 12, " 


John F. Roberts, 


Nov. 12, 1849 


Franklin Pennington, 


Jan. 31, 1850 


Clinton Auge, 


Oct. 30, " 


Francis Darlington, 


Dec. 8, 1851 


Wm. B. Waddell, . 


Mar. 8, 1852 


Wm. L. Marshall, 


June 14, " 


Levi Kimes, 


. Sept. 15, " 


Edward J. Lewis, . 


Jan, 31, 1853 


Wm. H. Darlington, 


. July 31, " 


Wayne McVeagh, 


April 28, 1856 


James J. Creigh, . 


Mar. 9, 1857 



Francis C. Hooten, . 
Cheyney W. Neilds, 
George W. Roberts, 
Henry M. Mclntire, 
Thomas S. Bell, Jr., 
George M. Rupert, 
Wm. L Haines, 
Henry W. Carruthers, 
John J. Pinkerton, 
W. M. Hinkson, 
William T. Fulton, 
Oliver Sidwell, 
Abraham Wanger, 
Elbridge Meconkey, 
David Ruth, 
Reese Davis, 
Joseph Hemphill, Jr., 
George F. Smith, 
William M. Hayes, 
J. Alfred McCaughey, 
Joseph Beale, 
Wm. H. Whitehead, 
Nimrod Strickland, Jr., 
Alfred P. Reid, 
Robert T. Corn well, 
Alfred P. Carey, 
Joseph W. Barnard, 
Chas. H. Pennypacker, 
Joseph F. Perdue, 
D. Smith Talbot, 
Abner Pyle, 
Thomas W. Pearce, 
Samuel D. Ramsey, 
Wm. S. Windle, . 
Andrew C. Fulton, 
William B. Reid, . 
Henry H. Gilkyson, 
Chas. Wesley Talbot, 
Francis Windle, 
Benjamin F. McAtee, 
George L. Maris, 
Robert Jones Monaghan, 
Isaac Newton Wynn, 
Frederick S. Dickson, 
John E. Kinnard, 
William E. Dingee, 
Curtis H. Hannum, 
Theodore K. Stubbs, 
Thomas B. Taylor, 
Ezra Evans, . 
John A. GroflF, 
William T. Barber, 
Thomas S. Butler, . 

The following gentlemen were, at 
the dates set opposite their respective 
names, appointed 

Prothonotaries of Chester County. 





Oct. 3°, 1857 




Mar. II, 1858 




June 8, 1858 




Sept. 15, " 


, 


April 4, 1859 




Oct. 20, " 




Jan. 30, i860 




Feb. I, " 




April 30, " 




May 13, 1861 




Aug. I, 1862 




Mar. 16, 1863 




Aug. 10, " 




Dec. 15, " 




June 3, 1864 




Oct. 31, " 




Nov. 19, " 




Dec. 12, " 




Aug. IS. 1865 




Oct. 30, " 




June II, 1866 




Aug. 14, " 




Dec. 10, " 




Jan. 28, 1867 


. 


Aug. 13, " 




. '• 9, 1869 




Feb. 19, 1870 




. April 28, " 




. Feb. 14, 1871 




Mar. 13, " 




. April 24, " 




Sept. II, " 




Mar. II, 1872 




. May 6, " 




Sept. 9, " 




Oct. 28, " 




Dec. 31, " 




Mar. 12, 1^73 




• ■^:f^ ?; .',' 




Aug. II, " 




Dec. 9. " 




June IS, 1874 




Oct. 16. " 




Feb. I, 1875 




Aug. 9, 187s 




Feb. 7, 1876 




. June 5, 1876 




Dec. 12, 1876 




Jan. 29, 1877 



Thomas Revell, 


in office 


in 


- i68x 


Robert Eyre, 


" 




8 mo. 17, 1683 


Joshua Fearne, 


" 




1690 


John Childe, 


" 




May 13, 1693 


Henry Hollingsw 


n-th, " 




— 1700 


David Lloyd, 


/•ye7>wus 


to 





Joseph Parker, 


appoinh 


d 


Dec. 24, 1724 


Henry Hale Grab 


am, " 




-,1766 



478 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



Benj. Jacobs,* aJ>poiuied, Mar. 22, 1777 

Caleb Davis, " June 16, 1777 

The following is a list of the Pro- 
thonotaries continued to the present 
time. From/. Smith Futhef s His- 
torical Collections of Chester County. 



William Gibbons, appointed 
Daniel Hiester, " 



Jesse John, 
John G. Wersler, 
Thomas Davis, 
Wm. Williamson, 
David Townsend, 
Dr. Wm. Darlington, 
John W. Cunningham, 
Benjamin I. Miller, 
Samuel Pinkerton, 



-■ — — 1791 

Jan. 6, 1800 

Feb. I, 1809 

Mar. 25, 1818 

Feb. 29, 1821 

Jan. 17, 1824 

Aug. 3, 1827 

Aug. 17, 1827 

Feb. 15, 1830 

Jan. 26, 1836 

Feb. 2, 1839 
" elected under the Constitution of 

1838, and re-commissioned Nov. 14, 1839 

Abner N. Chamberlain, commis'd Nov. 12, 1842 

James Davis, " . Nov. 17, 1845 

Samuel B. Thomas, " . Nov. 25, 1848 

William Wollerton, " . Nov. 22, 1851 

Jas. Bayard Jefferis, " . Nov. 10, 1854 

Jacob Gilbough, " . Nov. 10, 1857 

Nov. 19, i86o 

Nov. 16, 1863 

Nov. 16, 1866 

Nov. 20, 1869 

Nov. 19, 1872 

Dec. 28, 1875 



Emmor B. Lamborn, 
Franklin Haines, 
Alfred Rupert, 
Seneca G. Willauer, 
John A. Rupert, 
Hannum Baldwin, 



I give here an imperfect list of the 
Treasurers of Chester County, previ- 
ous to the formation of Delaware 
County, viz. : 

Robert Miller, . . . 1750 

Humphrey Marshall, . . . 1762 

Lewis Davis, .... j^gg 

James Gibbons, . . . 1770 

Philip Taylor, . . . 1775 

David Cloyd, in office,\ . 1781 

Persifer Frazer, iate Treasurer,^ . i-jZ-j 

Thomas Levis, late Treasurer,^ . 1788 

The Treasurers of Delaware County, 
as far as I have been able to collect 
the names, have been, 

Obom Levis, 1834 William Eves, 1867 

Samuel Dutton, 1851 John J. Hoopes, 1869 

David K. Ralston, 1863 Henry B. Taylor, 1876 

*In II C. A\, 188, Mar. 22, 1777, in the 
proceedings of Council, it was : " Ordered, 
That Benjamin Jacobs, son of the Speaker, be 
appointed Prothonotary of Chester County, and 
tiiat he Ije commissioned accordingly." And 
on April 4, 1777, it apearsitwas "agreed, that 

Prothonotary for the County of Chester be 
chosen by ballot; and Benjamin Tacobs was 
elected and ap])i)inted." 

tSee 15 C. A\, 179,227,392. 



LII. 

I HAVE in my possession certain Arti- 
cles of Agreement, made Jan. 15, 1807, 
between Nathaniel Davis of the one 
part, and Thomas Armstrong of the 
other, both of Philadelphia, whereby 
Davis, for the sum of ;^8oo, agrees to 
sell Armstrong: "That messuage or 
Tenement, commonly known by the 
name of the 'Seven Starrs', with 
the Plantation and Tract or Piece of 
Land thereunto belonging, containing 
about 100 acres, * * situate in the 
township of Aston," &c. 

Nathaniel Davis, and after his de- 
cease, his widow Catharine, kept a tav- 
ern in Letitia Court. I had a license in 
her name, but accidentally destroyed it 
with some worthless old papers. They 
had two sons, John C. and Nathaniel. 
The former died recently, Nov. 6, 
1873; born Feb. 22, 1796, leaving a 
large estate, and being unmarried, he 
left a large portion of his wealth to chari- 
table institutions, and after making 
some legacies to his relatives, left the 
residue to his niece, Sarah Jane (Sim- 
mons), wife of Dr. John W. Lodge, of 
Lower Merion, Montgomery County, 
Pa. Nathaniel Davis, the other son, 
married Elizabeth, daughter of Pierce 
and Christiana Crosby, of "Crosby's 
Mills." See/. 211, ante. 

The Chester Park Association was 
organized at Chester, May 16, 1871, 
and the following officers elected to 
serve for one year: President, Dr. 
Ellwood Harvey; Directors, J. How- 
ard Lewis, Joseph Huddell, J. Lewis 
Garrett, George Baker, Dr. William 
B. Ulrich, Dr. Ellwood Harvey, Frank 
Field, Charles Hinkson, Thomas Ap- 
pleby and Col. Samuel A. Dyer. The 
object of the Association being to pro- 
mote and encourage the improvement 
of the breed of horses ; and for the 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



479 



purpose of carrying out its objects, the 
Society agreed to rent of J . Engle Coch- 
ran, the tract of land on which there 
is already a fine course for the trial of 
speed of horses, which has for some- 
time been used by the members of the 
Association for testing the speed and 
endurance of their favorite nags. 

In the list of the old inhabitants of 
Chester heretofore given, will be found 
the three Baldwins. Dr. Smith states 
that Thomas Baldwin settled on the 
southwest side of Chester Creek, above 
Chester Mills, about 1697, but after- 
wards removed to Chester, where he 
died in 1731. His children were 
Thomas, Joseph, William, Anthony, 
Mary, Martha and Elizabeth, and that 
his brother, John Baldwin, was an early 
settler in Aston. In 1689, he married, 
according to usage of Friends, Katha- 
rine Turner, a widow, and had two 
children, Ruth and John. In this 
family there were "three brothers," 
Thomas, John and Francis, original 
settlers ; John after some time came to 
reside in Chester, where he died in 
1732, having considerable property. 
He was a blacksmith. Francis Bald- 
win, was also a settler in the neighbor- 
hood of Chester as early as 1686. 

I am indebted to Gilbert Cope, of 
West Chester, for the following ad- 
ditional information regarding this old 
Chester family: "John Baldwin be- 
came possessed of considerable pro- 
perty in Chester, and it might be pro- 
per to notice the family in local histo- 
ry. Thomas Baldwin's marriage certi- 
ficate, dated 1684, is the first in the 
old record, possessed by the Historical 
Society, by which it appears that he 
was married ' at the house where 
Michall Izard lately dwelt,' on the 
7th day of the week, but the exact 
date cannot be made out. His wife, 



Mary, was the widow of Richard Lin- 
vill, of the county of Sussex, England, 
and her sons, John and Thomas Lin- 
vill, were among our early settlers. 
Francis Baldwin, a miller, died in New 
Castle County, in 1702, though he was 
a juror at Chester Court not long be- 
fore. In 1 69 1, his father-in-law, Tho- 
mas Coebourne, conveyed to him one 
hundred acres of land on Chester Creek 
in Chester township. His widow's 
name was Cicely. John Baldwin mar- 
ried Katharine Turner, widow, 4 mo. 
4, 1689, and in the certificate is styled 
'of Aston, Carpenter.' One Edward 
Turner in 1687, married Katharine 
Carter, and the above named was his 
widow. Both marriages took place in 
Philadelphia. John Baldwin obtained 
awarrantdated4mo. 30, 1702, for 100 
acres of land, ' fifty thereof in right of 
his own service to Joshua Hastings, 
and fifty in right of his wife Katharine, 
servant to John Blunston.' 

The following notes were taken in 
the office of Register of Wills for Ches- 
ter County. 

"Joseph Baldwin of Chester Town- 
ship, died intestate, and letters of ad- 
ministration were granted to Elizabeth 
Baldwin, Mar. ^9, 1715. William 
Baldwin, of Chester, mayson, in his 
will, dated July 20, 1722, 'being sick,' 
gives to brother Anthony Baldwin, 10 
shillings, and to wife Mary remainder 
of estate. Will proved 6 mo. 2, 1732, 
by Thomas Baldwin and Edward Car- 
ter, two of the witnesses thereto. John 
Baldwin, Jr., intestate; letters to John 
Baldwin, (his father,) Nov. 12, 1728, 
in whose favor the widow, Hannah, re- 
nounces. John, Jr., was a saddler in 
Chester. The administration accounts 
contain the vendue sales. Will of 
John Baldwin, of the Borough of Ches- 
ter, merchant, book A, p. 352: To 



480 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



grand-son, John l)al(lwin, 'the house, 
lott, wharfs, store, houses, with y" ap- 
purtenances where I now dwell, situate 
in Chester, afores*:' To grand-son, 
Joshua Baldwin, ' the house and lott, 
situate on the easterly end of Chester 
bridge:' To grand-sons, John and 
Joshua, 'all that fifive acres and a half 
of land I lately purchased of John 
Wade, situate along y* Kings Road, 
leading to New Castle, and adjoyning 
to the lott of land late of Jonathan 
Ogdon:' To grand-son, John Bald- 
win, 'the house and lots where one 
Richard Marsden lately dwelt, situate 
in Chester, afores** : ' To grand-son, 
Joshua Baldwin, ' y° house, lotts which 
I lately purchased of one John Reming- 
ton, situate in Chester:' To grand- 
sons, John and Joshua, 'all that my 
six hundred acres of land, situate in 
the township of Cain, in y" said county, 
to be equally divided between them ; ' 
also, ' all that my twenty acres of land 
I lately purchased of James Barber, 
situate in Chester, upon the road lead- 
ing to Springfield, and adjoyning to 
y' lott of land late of Robert Barber : ' 
To brother Thomas Baldwin, 'five 
pounds p"" year, currant mony of pen- 
silvania, during his naturall life, to be 
paid by my executors, hereinafter 
named, on the twenty-ninth day of the 
seventh month, yearly: ' To grand-son, 
John Baldwin, ' that corner lott of land, 
situate in Chester, which I lately pur- 
chased of the heirs of Robert ffrench, 
fronting Middle street and front street:: ' 
To children of brother Thomas and 
brother Francis, five shillings each : To 
grand-sons, John and Joshua, remainder 
of estate. Executors, Mercer Brown, 
of Nottingham, Peter Dicks, of Ridley, 
and Joseph Parker, of Chester, ffriend 
Joshua Johnson, of Philadelphia, and 
John Salkeld of Chester, overseers or 



trustees, to have £^$ each at the ex- 
piration of 4 years after my decease : 
dated 2 mo. 2, 1731. 'My two grand- 
sons, John Baldwin and Joshua Bald- 
win, shall be kept to school till they be 
fitt to go to trades, and then put to 
such good trades as my Executors may 
think most fitt for them, and that the 
whole expense thereof shall be defrayed 
out of the profits and issues arising out 
of the aforesaid estate." Witnesses, 
Thomas Cummings, Step. Hoskins, 
Benja. Kendall. Codicil, 9 mo. 6, 1731 : 
To Thomas Baldwin, son of brother 
Thomas, ;^2o : To Anthony, son of 
brother Thomas, and to Thomas and 
John, sons of brother Francis, ^10 
each: My negroe servant woman, 
named Hagr, to be sett free from her 
servitude by my Executors afore named 
at the expiration of one year after my 
decease : Witnesses, Rich'd Barry, 
Robt. Wilson, Thomas Cummings. 
Codicil, Nov. 11, 1 731, app'ts 'Thomas 
Cummings one of my Executors, and I 
hereby bequeath fifive pounds to be paid 
by my Executors for and towaj-ds the 
building of a school house upon the lott 
I lately conveyed for that purpose,' and 
' to Martha Thomas ;^5, and I give to 
the use of Chester Meeting the sum of 
ffive pounds for and towards y*" repair- 
ing of Meeting House or building a new 
one as they may think fitt, and I give fifive 
pounds to Chichester Meeting : Wit- 
nesses, Jno. Tomkins, Ric'd Barry, 
Benja. Kendall ; proven Mar. 7,1731-2; 
letters granted to Peter Dick & Thos. 
Cummings ; Mercer Brown being de- 
ceased, and Joseph Parker renouncing. 
The Executors' accounts are very long. 
Thos. Cummings accounts for ^871, 
8j. <)d. & Peter Dicks for ;^268,3i-. 
od. For schooling Joshua 2 quarters, 
Rich'd Backhouse was ])* 19 shillings. 
The real estate not included in the ac- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



481 



counts. The grandsons, John & Joshua, 
afterwards settled in Cahi, and a grand- 
son of the former, Jonathan C. Bald- 
win, born in i792,diedin 1874, owned 
a part of the land bequeathed as above. 
He was President of Chester Co. Hor- 
ticultural Society some years ago, and 
somewhat noted as a fruit-grower. 
Spencer Bonsall, of the Historical So- 
ciety, is descended from Joshua. 

Will of Thomas Baldwin of Chester 
Township, blacksmith, dated Mar. 17, 
1 730- 1, A, p. 334, gives to his son 
Thomas, ('my well beloved son') is; 
to the rightfull heir of my son Joseph 
Baldwin, deceased, is. ; to the right- 
full heir of my son William, deceas- 
ed, IS. ; to son Anthony, i^-. ; to 
daughter Mary Baldwin, i^-. ; to daugh- 
ter Martha Grice, [wife of John Griest,] 
IS. ; to daughter Elizabeth Baldwin, 
now Weaver, li-. ; Wife Mary, all per- 
sonal property. Executrix. Witnesses, 
Wm. Rattew, Goldsmith Edward ffal- 
well, John Pyle : Proven, July 2, 1731, 
by all these on affirmation, & letters 
granted to Mary Baldwin." 

The widow of Joseph Baldwin mar- 
ried Joseph Bond, as stated at p. 106. 
Anthony Baldwin married, in 1712, 
Hannah, daughter of William and 
Mary Coebourne, and afterward a sec- 
ond wife, Margery, daughter of John 
Hannum, of Concord. He finally 
settled in Newlin township, Chester 
County, where he left a numerous off- 
spring. 

As it is one of the objects of this his- 
tory to preserve the memory of all good 
and true sons of the county, whose re- 
cord is creditable to themselves, their 
friends, relatives and fellow citizens, I 
insert here the following Biographical 
notice of the late George Miller, one 
of the early founders of the Delaware 
County Institute of Science, who died 



Dec. 31, 1869, taken from a paper read 
before the Institute: 

" George Miller, tlie son of George and Mary 
Miller, was born in Upper Providence. His 
parents were both members of the Society of 
Friends, as their ancestors had been from their 
first settlement in this country. Inheriting a 
birth-right with this society, he had the advan- 
tages of a careful early training, but his oppor- 
tunities for obtaining a school education while 
young, differed but little from that of the sons 
of other farmers of the neighborhood, if we 
except some little instruction in Latin and 
French. 

While quite young he gave some attention 
to scientific studies, and took some interest in 
the collection of botanical specimens, and those 
of mineralogy and geology. In early life he 
manifested a fondness for reading, of a practi- 
cal and instructive character. 

In 1820, he made a tour, mostly on foot, to 
the Falls of Niagara, by the way of New York 
city, the Hudson River and the central parts 
of the State of New York. After reaching 
Black Rock, on the Niagara River, he took 
passage on board of a steamboat and proceed- 
ed to the town of Erie. This was the first 
steamboat that ever floated on Lake Erie. 
From Erie he proceeded on foot to the Hock- 
ing, or Hockhocking River, near the present 
town of Logan, in Ohio. From this point he 
walked to his home in Delaware County, the 
whole distance being more than 600 miles. 

About the period of the return of our youth- 
ful traveller, there sprung up in this county a 
taste for the study of the natural sciences, 
which was stimulated by the publication of the 
first localj^ora of the late Dr. Wm. Darlington. 
George Miller, by his studies, his travels and 
observations of nature in its varied forms, was 
well fitted to join in any movement in that di- 
rection, and hence we find him among those 
young men who engaged more enthusiastically 
in the study of the natural sciences, as the 
means of investigation increased. W'ith him 
this was particularly the case, in respect to 
botany. 

But co-operative study has its advantages as 
well as co-operative labor. Our Institute has 
its conveniences of this "kind, and George 
Miller was among the first to foresee the use- 
fulness of such an institution. With the view 
to bring al)out its establi>hment, several meet- 



482 



HISTORY OF CHESTER, 



ings were held nt cliffereiU jilaccs during the 
early part of the year 1S33, but it was not till 
Sept. 2 1st that year, that an organization was 
effected. George Miller being the oldest of 
the five young men present at the meeting 
held that day, his name was first signed to the 
constitution then adopted. 

While he continued to be a resident of Del- 
aware County, he cordially co-operated with 
his fellow members in securing the perma- 
nency of the Institute, and increasing its useful- 
ness, by his presence at its meetings and his 
contributions to its museum. But his stay with 
us was brief. His love of travel, and his great 
admiration for the West, induced him to leave 
his home again in April, 1835. After travel- 
ling on horseback through Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois, (stopping 
occasionally in the Miami country with old 
friends of his family,) he settled for a short 
time in Illinois, on the Vermillion River. 
From this place he made another extensive 
tour, passing through northern Illinois as far as 
Prairie-du-Chien, on the Mississippi, making 
an extensive reconnoisance of the country on 
both sides of the river as he progressed. He 
eventually purchased an extensive tract of land 
in what is now Henry County, in the State of 
Iowa. Here he made his final settlement, 
and this was his home for more than thirty- 
three years, and until the time of his death. 

When George Miller made his purchase the 
Territory of Iowa was not organized. The 
country thereabouts was almost in a state of 
nature. The Indian and buffalo roamed freely 
over its vast prairies and limited timber lands. 
At the point on the Mississippi where he crossed 
that river there was then but a single log cabin. 
Now the site is occupied by the populous city 
of Burlington, and the river -is spanned by an 
iron railroad bridge. 

Though engaged in agricultural pursuits, 
George Miller never lost his interest in science. 
As an evidence of this, he erected during the 
last year of his life and at his own cost, a build- 
ing containing a lecture room and apartments 
for a museum and library. This edifice, called 
" The Henry County Institute of Science," is 
located on his own lands, near the thriving 
village of Trenton. 

While this building was in progress, he was 
in declining health, and died at midnight of 
the last day of the year 1869, at the age of 72 
years and two months, unmarried. 



He was a man of a retiring disposition, of 
the strictest integrity, but very firm in all his 
purposes. His aim was to do good to his 
fellow-man; and as to the kind of good that 
was uppermost in his mind towards the close 
of his life, no sculptured monument could 
more forciljly attest than 'flic Henry County 
Institute of Science.'" 

When my father lived at "Crosby 
Place," Ridley Creek quarries, about 
1833, a large colony of the Hiriindo 
purpurea, early every spring took pos- 
session of a long row of boxes placed 
under the eaves of the roof of the 
house, on the north-western side, and 
were as noisy, at times, outside of the 
building as the little Martins were in- 
side. I remember the martens, and 
the boxes being there when I was quite 
young, and used to go on long visits 
to my cousins, Robert P., Nathaniel 
D., Catharine and Sarah Ann Crosby. 
The birds were a continual source of 
pleasure and interest to us children, 
and we would watch them for hours. 
Every one reading this, will recall the 
beautiful song : " When the Swallows 
homeward fly." 

On Aug. 21, 1874, The Republican 
of Chester, had the following on this 
subject : 

"A Marten Roost. — During the 
past week, thousands of martens have 
made their resting place on the trees, 
in the deeply-shaded lawn of our neigh- 
bor, John O. Deshong. These birds 
are doubtless migrating south, and are 
evidently resting preparatory to a long 
flight in the direction of their winter 
home. It is very unusual to see them 
here in such vast numbers. Last fall 
we noticed their arrival in large flocks 
at Elkton, Md., where they remained 
but a day or two. The martens that 
hatch with us, usually arrive from the 
4th to the loth of April, and after 
raising two broods, dei)art in the early 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



483 



part of August, often, if not always, 
making their stay just four months — 
sometimes to a day. ' ' 

In the American Mi(seiim, 3 vol. 
452, there is an amusing communica- 
tion from Josiah Blakely, of Baltimore, 
dated July 14, 1788, in reference to 
swallows, in which he says he has been 
informed, " that they are not birds of 
passage ; but that the cause of their 
sudden disappearance and irregular re- 
turn was that they had a fixed day for 
immersing into the water, but none 
for emerging from it," &c. 

In Hazaj'd's Register, 12 vol., 192, 
the date of the departure of the mar- 
tens from Lancaster, is given in the 
following years: — In 1824, they left 
on September 15th; in 1825, on the 
loth; in 1826, on the 13th; 1827, 
on the 17th; 1828, on the 15th ; 1829, 
on the 13th; 1830, on the nth; 1831, 
on the 15th ; 1832, on the 15th ; 1833, 
on the 4th. The greatest variation in 
seven years not exceeding 13 days. 

The winter of 1833-4, was a very 
severe one ; the snow, in Delaware 
County covering the tops of the fences ; 
then a mild spell came, and it rained 
on top of the snow and froze as it fell, 
forming a thick, hard crust, sufficiently 
strong to bear the weight of a man, and 
remained so for a couple of weeks or 
more. I remember skating to school 
on the crust, and in places where the 
snow had drifted over the tops of the 
fences. No doubt the early departure 
of the martens in the fall of 1833, gave 
occasion to the weather-wise to pro- 
phecy a hard winter, and for once they 
were right. 

There was an interesting essay en- 
titled ''Notes on some of our Winter 
Birds,'' read before a meeting of the 
Delaware County Institute of Science, 
in 1873, by Charles G. Ogden, of 



Springfield; from a report of which, 
I made the following extracts at the 
time. I regret not having kept the 
whole paper ; what I have preserved is 
thus abbreviated : 

"The Crow we always have with 
us, and notwithstanding the ravages 
he sometimes commits in early sum- 
mer upon our young poultry and ten- 
der sprouts of corn, one cannot witness 
his distress during such long continued 
snows as we have had the present win- 
ter, without a feeling akin to pity. 

By far the most numerous of all our 
winter birds, is the little slate-colored 
Snow-bird. Everybody knows this 
hardy little stranger and nearly all are 
somewhat familiar with its habits. I be- 
lieve it has never been known to breed in 
this part of Pennsylvania. In the sum- 
mer it proceeds very far to the north, 
and is known to breed in large numbers 
within the Arctic circle. The snow- 
bird arrives in this locality about the 
middle of the Tenth month, and until 
cold weather, confines itself to the old 
fields and about the borders of the 
woods. At the first snow or very cold 
weather, it approaches the house and 
barn, where it is generally a regular 
visitant until mild weather, when it 
returns to its haunts of the previous au- 
tumn. At this time it may often be heard 
warbling its low but very sweet notes. 
It leaves here for its summer residence 
towards the last of the Fourth month. 

In winter the snow-birds have been 
almost constantly associated with two 
other species of Fingilla, — the Song 
Sparrow and the Tree Sparrow; the 
former of which remains with us the 
entire year, and is one of our earliest 
and best singers ; the latter, which is a 
regular visitant from the north, though 
regularly associating with the others, is 
more shy. 



484 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



Aiiotlier most interesting little bird 
is the Wliitrr JHr//, which is coni- 
parati\ely rare, but has so much in- 
dividuality as to be always noticed. 
It is sometimes mistaken for the com- 
mon House IVre/i of summer, and often 
by residents near tide water, for the 
Marsh IVrc?!, which it very much re- 
sembles. It is, however, entirely dis- 
tinct from either, and is only seen here 
during the winter, while the others retire 
to the south early in the autumn. It fre- 
quents out-houses, and is fond of creep- 
ing through the interstices of the wood- 
pile like some little quadruped, owing 
to' which propensity, it often falls a 
victim to the cat, which may account 
in some measure for its gradual disap- 
pearance from our homesteads. It is 
one of the few birds which often sings 
with animation during the cold weath- 
er, and it is much to be regretted that 
it is not more common. 

Braving .the intense severity of the 
present winter, the Blue Bird\\zs, been 
a constant resident of our locality. 
His food at this season, I think, con- 
sists entirely of cedar-berries, a plenti- 
ful supi)ly of which may account for 
his remaining constantly with us. In 
very cold or cloudy weather he is silent, 
and often not noticed by an inattentive 
observer ; he ha.s, however, been seen 
nearly every day, although we have 
been unable to offer him any induce- 
ments in the way of food. 

Several times during the winter, I 
came upon flocks of the Yellow Bird, 
or Avierican Goldfijieh, feeding upon 
the dried seeds of the rag-weed, Atn- 
brosia artemisicpfolia, which protruded 
above the snow. They were full of 
life and animation, flitting from plant 
to plant with the greatest vivacity. 
The male of this bird lo.ses his bright 
colors at the aj^proach f)f winter, and 



assumes the [jlain olive-colored garb 
of his mate. 

I have looked in vain for the Snow 
Buiiting^^' which during severe winters 
sometimes visits this locality. It is 
known as the White Snow-bird, and is 
a most interesting little stranger. 

A number of Cardinal Grosbeaks 
have been observed, and I know of 
two instances where, having been fed 
on broken grains of corn, they have 
lost much of their natural shyness. I 
have several times surprised them along 
the public roads, feeding with the snow- 
birds and sparrows. 

At the commencement of the cold 
weather the Meadotu Larks were very 
numerous, but the season has been too 
severef for them, they have nearly all 
disappeared — many, it is feared, per- 
ishing with cold and hunger, a number 
having been found frozen. This bird 
usually winters with us, but always 
seems to suffer much during long con- 
tinued snows. The Carolina Pigeon, 
or turtle dove, a few of which nearly 
always pass the winter here, seems 
better able to take care of itself. On 
several of the coldest days, I found 
them gleaning in the barn-yard among 
the cattle. 

A piece of fat pork attached to the 
limb of a tree near my window, has, 
during the cold weather, been almost 
constantly frequented by a variety of 
birds, among which have been noticed 
the Downey Wood-pecker, the black 
capped Nuthatch, the crested Titmouse, 

* These birds are considerably larger than 
the common snow-bird, and their feathers are 
white, sprinkled with brown; they arc com- 
mon in New Jersey, and are called by the 
people there " Calico Birds'' 

f The winter of 1872-3, was noted for its 
heavy and frequent falls of snow, and the 
thermometer often fell to about zero; it was 
the severest winter in this latitude for a long 
series f)f years. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



485 



the black capped Titmouse, and most 
amusing of all, the Blue Jay. The 
Downey Woodpecker is the smallest of 
its tribe, and probably the most numer- 
ous, though it does not attract so much 
attention as its more showy relative, the 
red-headed woodpecker. It is an ac- 
tive hardy little being, and doubtless 
destroys immense quantities of insects 
and their eggs. All who have apple 
trees must often have noticed a regular 
series of holes around the body of the 
trees ; this little bird has been the 
operator, and insects lurking there 
have been his victims. Trees thus 
operated upon, nearly always remain 
healthy and productive. The black- 
capped Nuthatch, is another most val- 
uable auxiliary in the destruction of 
insects ; instead of perforating the 
bark, he creeps around the trunk and 
larger branches of the tree, probing 
behind loose pieces and often detach- 
ing them entirely, of course securing 
all he may find suitable for his pur- 
pose. He seems to have a great pro- 
pensity for working with his head 
downwards ; in summer they retire 
from about our habitations and are 
not often seen. The crested Titmouse 
is not very common, though it is more 
frequently seen in winter than sum- 
mer ; when it retires to the woods to 
rear its young. It has a loud clear 
whistle, which from the fancied re- 
semblance of the notes to the words 
"take care," coupled with the fact 
that it whistles most lively before a 
storm, it is sometimes called the 
" Take-care Bird." I 

Contrary to their custom, a number [ 
oi Blue Jays have wintered in our lo- | 
cality. Soon after the first fall of snow, 
I noticed them hovering over the pig- 
pen, and upon watching them more 
closely, they were found to be feeding 



upon the corn left by the pigs ; when 
a jay-bird had secured a grain, he 
would fly with it to the limb of a tree, 
and then placing it under his toe, 
would hammer at it, much in the 
manner of a woodpecker, until he had 
broken the kernel, when he would swal- 
low the pieces. The Jay belongs to the 
magpie family, and has much of the 
cunning of that bird. Though noisy 
enough at other times, in cold weather, 
like most of other birds, they are gen- 
erally silent." 

The writer says, there are a number 
of other winter birds he has not men- 
tioned ; we can but regret that such 
an attentive observer did not write of 
all, their habits, &c. I noticed on 
Oct. II, 1873, i^^^r Marcus Hook, the 
swallows congregating in a field, upon 
the trees and fences, in a large flock, 
as if preparing to emigrate. It ap- 
peared to me that they had remained 
later than usual in our latitude. The 
weather had, however, been charming, 
no rain having fallen for 30 days, and 
the woods had only just begun to put 
on their vivid autumnal colors. The 
month of October is almost always the 
loveliest of the year, in the country 
especially, for then the leaves of the 
trees are ripening and changing their 
colors; the wild flowers of the fields, 
are then in full bloom, and a thin haze 
lends enchantment to the distant view, 
perchance across the glistening river 
into the far distant hills of Jersey, as 
I saw it on that day^ on the highlands 
back of Marcus Hook, near the hand- 
some residences of David Trainer and 
his sons. The sun shone with a mel- 
low golden light, the air was still and 
balmy, while on the glistening waters of 
the Delaware, there steamed by a mag- 
nificent ship of war with our country's 
colors at her gaft", her ports open, and 



486 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



lier deck crowded with men, " Home- 
ward bound. " It was a day that made 
me think of Park Benjamin's beauti- 
ful lines : 

"A sliimmering liaze upon the landscape rests, 
The sky has on its softest robe of blue, 
And the slant sunbeams glisten thro' 
Slow floating clouds, that lift their snow-white 

crests, 
'Mid the pure currents of the u])per air. 
The fields are dressed in autumn's faded green, 
And tre^s no more their clustering foliage wear : 
Vet nature smiles — how lovely and serene, 
How sweetly breathes this life-inspiring gale, 
Stirring yon silver lake's transparent wave ! 
Could we but dream that winter, sternly pale. 
Would never o'er this scene of beauty rave." 

In the Republican of April 24, 1874) 
the following occurs under the head of 
improvements: "The piles are noW 
being driven on Lewis Ladomus' pro- 
perty in this city, at the east side of 
the bridge on Third Street, prepara^ 
tory to erecting two new store build- 
ings. This improvement when finished 
will bring 'Ladomus Block' flush to 
the bridge, and complete that portion 
of one of our busiest thoroughfares. 
Few among our wealthy citizens have 
devoted so largely of their means in 
building up the city as Mr. Lado- 
mus has done, and the public spirit 
he thus displays is highly commend- 
able. We hope he may be amply re- 
warded for his liberality and enter- 
prise." 

The older inhabitants of Chester 
will recall the father of my friend 
Lewis, Charles A. Ladomus, who was 
quite a small man, who carried on the 
business of a jeweller and watchmaker, 
at the S. E. corner of Third and Edg- 
mont Avenue, and who died at Ches- 
ter, Dec. 30, 1857, in his 76th year, 
having been born on the Rhine in 
France, in 1782. At the time of the 
French Revolution, his mother being 



of nol)le blood, had to flee at night, 
with her children, (Charles Alexander 
being then an infant in arms,) into 
Germany, where the family afterwards 
remained; Charles A. being the only 
one who emigrated to America. Ja- 
cob, his elder brother, founded a Poly- 
technic College at Carlsruhe, and was for 
many years the Gehime Hoffardt, i. e., 
the Mayor or cJiief judicial officer of 
that city. Lewis, his second brother, 
was an officer in Napoleon's army, and 
was with him at the battle of Waterloo ; 
his sword is now in possession of his 
nephew, Joseph, of Chester. Charles 
A. was in Berlin at the time of the 
battle of Jena, when the German troops 
retreated through the city, and acted 
as interpreter to Napoleon. He after- 
wards made a tour of Europe on foot, 
which occupied 12 years. He then 
came to the United States, and mar- 
ried Catharine Schey, a widow, by 
whom he had seven children, of whom 
two died in infancy. She died April 
io, 1874, in the 85th year of her 
good old age, at the residence of her 
son, Jacob, in Philadelphia. Their 
eldest son, Jacob, married Adele, 
daughter of Henry Ducommun, jew- 
eller, of Philadelphia, by whom he had 
only one son, who died in infancy. 
Sometime after the death of his first 
wife, Jacob married again, Caroline 
Atherton, daughter of Nathaniel, also 
of Philadelphia, where he resides and 
carries on the business of jeweller and 
watchmaker, in ^Market Street. By 
his second marriage he has issue, Em- 
ily, Adele, Ellie and Henry. 

Lewis, the second son, resides in 
Chester, where he has erected a hand- 
some private residence, situated on 
14th Street, near the Pennsylvania 
Military Academy. He is the owner 
of nuich valuable real estate and is 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



487 



largely interested in the prosperity of 
his native town. He married Mary, 
a daughter of John McCloud, of Phil- 
adelphia, and they have born to them, 
Catharine, Lewis, Adele Ducommun, 
(who married, June lo, 1875, J- Engle 
Cochran, Jr., of Chester,) Clara V., 
and John Alexander. Although Lewis 
resides in Chester, his business is car- 
ried on in Philadelphia; like all the 
rest of his family he is a jeweller and 
watchmaker, and his extensive estab- 
lishment is at No. 1 01 6 Chestnut St. 

Joseph Ladomus, the third surviving 
son, succeeded his father in the busi- 
ness of a jeweller and watchmaker, in 
his native town of Chester. His store 
is in a portion of the old White Swan 
Tavern, kept in Revolutionary times 
by Cowpland, and in later days by 
Jane Irwin. He married Henrietta, 
daughter of Henry L. Powell, by whom 
he has issue, Charles H., who is a civil 
engineer; Williani P., Joseph H. and 
Bonsall Grey. 

Rosanna, one of the daughters of 
Charles A. and Catharine Ladomus, 
married Charles Burkheimer, and went 
to Wilmington, North Carolina, to re- 
side, and died there leaving one child, 
a son, called Charles. Charlotte, the 
other daughter, married Cadwallader 
Evans, of Chester, and died in child- 
birth with her infant. 

Charles A. Ladomus, was a small, 
bright, active little man, and seemed 
always full of business and life. Al- 
though Chester was then a sleepy old 
town, he built up a good business, but it 
was difficult to understand him when he 
tried to talk English ; it was too much 
for him to the end of his days. 

From the Republican of Jan. 17, 
1873, my store-house of local history, 
I cut the following account of the 
"Mechanics' Reading Room. — The 



capital suit of rooms in the brick build- 
ing on Third St., below Market, were 
formally dedicated to the uses of a 
Library and Reading-room, for the 
mechanics and workingmen of this 
city, on Saturday evening last. The 
rooms are handsomely carpeted, and 
well furnished for the purposes for 
which they are intended. The hand- 
some Brussels carpet that covers the 
floor of the front room in the second 
story, and a large chair, were the gift 
of William Bucknell, Esq., of Phila- 
delphia, and the carpet in the third 
story was donated by Mrs. Lewis Cro- 
zer. The pitchers, window hangings, 
and quite a number of volumes were 
the gifts of friends of the undertaking. 
To Miss Laura Hard is the credit 
due for this great addition to the com- 
fort and convenience of our intelligent 
mechanics, and it is to be hoped they 
will take advantage of the opportunity 
thus offered for mental improvement, 
and add to and support the library 
which has been opened for them. 
The dedicatory ceremonies were of 
deep interest to all present, and con- 
sisted of a prayer by the Rev. Mr. 
Shanafelt, and speeches of encourage- 
ment by Rev. Mr. Brown and William 
Ward, Esq. The attendance on Mon- 
day night was large, and the indica- 
tions are, that the project will be 
entirely successful, and reflect credit 
upon those who have its management." 
The out-door exercise and muscular 
development, as tending to increase 
health and strength, has in this coun- 
try, the last few years, obtained a pro- 
minence among the young men, and 
it is fashionable now to belong to some 
kind of a Club of Athletes. Such an 
association has now fine grounds in 
Delaware County, consisting of five 
acres, on which there is to be erected 



488 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



a handsonic club house. Tinicmn has 
its Sportsman's Chib ; Chester, its 
Fishing Chib; Base Ball Clubs are 
all over the county, and now Haver- 
ford has her Cricket Club, as the fol- 
lowing circular shows: 

"The Merion Cricket Club after 
several years of unwearied persever- 
ance, has at length succeeded in leasing 
a field suitable for a Cricket-ground. 
It- is situated about half a mile from 
Ardmore station, on the Pennsylvania 
Railroad, seven miles from the city 
depot. 

The field is capable of being made 
not only an excellent Cricket-ground, 
but, it is hoped and intended, will be 
the most elegible and well-arranged 
ground in the neighborhood for match- 
es at archery, croquet and kindred 
games. Funds are being raised among 
members and friends of the Club, for 
the purpose of erecting a suitable club 
house, for implements, dress, &c., which 
will be built with porch and balcony 
for the accommodation of spectators. 

To put it in proper order will require 
a large outlay of money and high rental. 
The cost of keeping the ground in or- 
der, with the other regular expenses, 
will require a much larger revenue than 
has heretofore been realized, and this 
can only be supplied by an increase of 
membership. 

The Merion Cricket Club, represents 
particularly the line of the Pennsylva- 
nia R. R., and its grounds are in the 
midst of one of the most beautiful and 
rapidly improving sections in the vi- 
cinity of Philadelphia. This gives it 
a peculiar claim to local support ; and 
we hope that its friends in general, and 
all who are intere.sted in the advance- 
ment of the game of Cricket, or desir- 
ous of seeing the establishment of a 
good play-ground, will aid in this ef- 



fort to make the Merion Cricket Club 
an institution and a credit to the neigh- 
borhood." 

The Merion Cricket Club, was 
organized, 1865, incorporated, 1874. 

President — J. Hunter Ewing, of 
Radnor, Delaware County. 

Vice-President — Harry Sayres, of the 
city of Philadelphia. 

Secretary — Edward S. Sayres, Jr., 
Esq., of the Philadelphia Bar. 

Treasurer — William W. Montgom- 
ery, Esq., of the Philadelphia Bar. 

Gj'oiind Committee — Rowland Ev- 
ans, Samuel M. Garrigues, George 
Ashbridge, James P. Townsend, and 
Joseph M. Fox. 

LIII. 

There was issued by the American 
Sunday-School Union, in 1876, a 
charming little story called, " Two 
Hundred Years ago, or Life in New 
Sweden,^'' which purports to be the 
Diary of a young girl who came over 
in the Swa?i, in 1647, and is continued 
until the arrival of Penn, giving a faith- 
ful historical view of life and events on 
the Delaware for thirty-five years ; it is 
exceedingly interesting, and the names 
of the people mentioned not being fic- 
titious, adds to the interest. 

From Lippincotf s Magazine for Sep- 
tember, 1872, I copy a part of the 
article entitled, ''Through William 
Penn's Low Counties," premising, 
however, that the author has fallen 
into the error of saying, that the old 
cooper shop, formerly occupied by 
Samuel Long, was the building in 
which the first Assembly of Pennsyl- 
vania met ; when in fact it was the 
first Meeting-House of Friends, and 
was not erected until 1693, eleven 
years after the first Assembly was held ; 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



489 



no doubt in the Court House, i. e., 
the House of Defence. Another error 
occurs. He calls Delaware County, 
"Penn's Low Counties." The lower 
counties are situated wholly within the 
State of Delaware ; otherwise the arti- 
cle is of sufficient interest to be pre- 
served in this work; except perhaps 
some flights of fancy, and scraps of 
poetry, which I have omitted. With 
these omissions made, the article, 
which is written in a jocular vein, 
reads as follows : 

We started from Chester. Had it been the 
Chester of Old England, what a comely and 
creditable point of departure ! Chester on the 
Dee is the neatest, most finical and most care- 
fully kept bit of show antiquity in Europe. 
The riantagenet houses are there intact, their 
upper stories horsed upon the lower, and form- 
ing long promenades hung in mid-air^the 
famous Rows of Chester — Their carved beams 
show upon the surface, and their interiors 
prove their mummied antiquity by an inde- 
scribable, individual, characteristic, not the 
newest — smell. You can run all around the 
town on the top of the city wall, which the 
Romans founded : we knov>' it, for we did so 
once, the controlling cause of our velocity be- 
ing a spring storm driving straight and cold 
upon us from the mountains of Wales. There 
is a cathedral, but not so fine a one as to take 
away from the effect of the old houses. Here- 
in Chester differs from Rouen, which also has 
fine old Norman mansions, but which fronts 
up everyM'here into such a champagne of florid 
church-Gothic that the imagination is intoxi- 
cated, Chester is a good old homely English 
mulled wine. The American tourist usually 
takes it as a stirrup-cup at the outset of his 
journey, for Chester is the first city he sips 
after landing at Liverpool, and its wholesome, 
crusty, blithe flavor lasts him a long way. 
Chester is an heirloom, a quaint and precious 
toy, for ever being polished and cleansed like 
a grandfather's watch. When a house decays 
they build another of mediseval pattern. The 
old defensive towers at the angles of the walls 
are now beautiful little make-believe curiosity- 
shops, buried in gilliflowers and roses. The 
new inn, the Crosvenor, built to resemlile a 



hostlery at which King Harry might have 
lodged, is one of the most comfortable in Eng- 
land, the sham-antiquity not penetrating be- 
yond the externals. In a fair meadow out- 
side, like the print of a Roman amphitheatre 
on the grass, is the race-track where they run 
for the Chester Cup. 

We started, however, from Chester-on-Del- 
aware, not Chester-on-Dee. And the colonial 
Chester, if not a finished, coaxed, flattered and 
perfected type like the gi-and-motherly old 
English town, had an import peculiar to itself. 
So far from being a show-pattern city, it has 
the more pathetic interest attached to a jilted 
city, a ville juanquee, an unachieved capital. 
Chester, with reason expected, as we may 
express it,' to be Philadelphia. The oldest 
city in Pennsylvania, its town-lots showing 
European titles back to 1645, it was an empo- 
rium and a seat of justice while the future 
capital was a mere coronet of pines upon the 
bluff above the junction of the Delaware and 
Schuylkill. 

There appears to be conclusive proof that 
Penn's first notion was to make Chester his 
capital city. A journal of Henry Hollings- 
worth, assistant to Penn's Surveyor-General, 
has been quoted, to the effect that the Governor 
caused his first observations to be taken at 
Chester, with the intention of fixing his city 
there, but afterwards finding that it was not 
far enough north from the fortieth degree, 
the boundary-line of Lord Baltimore, he 
changed his mind, and chose his site at the 
confluence of the two rivers. Yet this was a 
disappointment to some of his colonists. The 
Governor got his province in January, 1681 ; 
sevens months after, in three ships, he sent 
out an instalment of his persecuted, scourged, 
prison-freed Quakers ; but the three ships were 
not equally good sailers, for one of them was 
blown to the West Indies, and rolled in its 
cargo of sore Englishmen among the orange 
groves ; and another, the Factor, never found 
the Delaware until December, when it got 
packed in the ice here at Chester, and went 
no farther, while its placid passengei^s, content 
to be ice-bound, settled tranquilly upon the 
shore. They were well received, for a well- 
to-do Quaker, Robert Wade, with others of 
the sect, had lived here among the Swedes 
some half a dozen years. 

The site of Philadelphia was not fixed until 
the best part of a year after this icy reception. 



490 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



That decision was late in 1682, a year in wliich 
twenty-three ship-loads of Penn's placid avant- 
guard set sail for Pennsylvania, (a child born 
on the voyage was named Sea-Mercy,) many 
of them adhering at Chester; and in which, in 
August, the happy Founder himself embarked 
for his new world. 

On Sunday, Oct. 29, 1682, the miUl Ches 
trians were treated to a fete, an occasion of 
solemn gladness which must have caused even 
their well-schooled spirits to exult a little. The 
Welcome hove-to near the shore, and the Well- 
Desired, the beloved, the chief and leader, the 
young enthusiast who was to give them an 
Eden, was among them. He had paused for 
forty-eight hours at Newcastle, where the 
Dutch and Swedes, yielding at once to his 
youth, comeliness and sunny looks, had be- 
sought him to add them to his colony ; and 
had passed without unnecessary delay to Ches- 
ter as his proper court. Penn was then thirty- 
eight — a young man, with fine dark eyes, too 
merry, the elders said, for a Quaker preacher, 
and very light and vigorous. Shortly after 
this, while eating roast acorns with the Indian 
braves and watching their Olympic games on 
the site of Philadelphia, he yielded to the spirit 
of the scene, jumped with the best of the red 
leapers, and out-jumped them all. We are 
apt to base our idea of his appearance upon 
the engraving of "Penn's Treaty," but this 
popular print is a mass of mis-statement, and 
gives no idea of the youthful good-looks or 
the easy urbanity of the Founder. 

The Governor then, cutting with hasty prow 
the fresh river that formed his boundary-line, 
passed between the crimson woods, so new a 
sight to him, and made for Chester. We can 
fancy the scene of his progress, attended by 
the canoes of the naked and anointed savages, 
and by the boats of the Swedes, who vol- 
untarily used the river and stream for their 
streets in preference to the vine-entangled 
laurel chapparal of the shore. Landing at 
Wade's mansion for prayers and thanksgiving, 
he found himself, with exquisite emotions, 
among the old comrades he had known in 
England, now living, like ancient hermits of 
Syria, in caves of the earth and dens. The 
Quakers were fraternal ; the Indians were 
"very loving;" the Swedes, the ancestors of 
such stately Philadelphia families as the Swan- 
sons and Stilles, were a kind of mild satyrs 
in their leather jerkins and moccasons, their 



leather jiettic(jats and jackets for the females : 
they assimilated with the new chief with all 
the enthusiasm of Calibans. The Essex House, 
Wade's handsome mansion (built in 1675), was 
open to all \\ho would feast. The Indian 
hunters, their l)odics smeared with black earth 
from the sea-side against the heat, staggered in 
with fat bucks, sold at two shillings ; wild 
pigeons were like clouds ; swans were abund- 
ant, and thirty-pound turkeys sold for a shil- 
ling ; the Delaware was alive with fish, the 
sturgeons vaulting into the air several at once, 
and sometimes leaping into the canoes and 
oversetting them ; while .shad {a/Zoes I'enn 
calls them) sold for twopence. 

The historical painter might find a theme 
again in a solemnity which took place the .same 
year — the yielding up to Penn, by the Duke 
of York's agents, of Newcastle, and the Lower 
Counties, with formal tangibility, by the de- 
livei-y of luf/ and water. As for the famous 
Treaty under the Tree, although it needs one 
more representation for the sake of recording 
the facts truly as they occurred, yet it is of less 
consequence than is generally supposed, hav- 
ing been not a treaty for the land of Pennsyl- 
vania, but a mere sentimental arrangement, or 
" chain of friendship." 

The charmed idyl of these settlers' lives con- 
tinued for years ; it is hard for the imagination 
to get quit of so delicious a vision. The sons 
of peace lived among the wild things like St. 
Francis, of Assisi. The lions of the forest, 
the red-skins, became tame and brought them 
food. The Swedes' block-houses, their church- 
es pierced with loop-holes for Indian warfare, 
became useless. In a cave under the Phila- 
delphia cliff, little Rebecca Coleman was found 
feeding a snake from her porridge-bowl, tap- 
ping its head with a spoon and saying, " Keep 
to thy part." In another such cave the Mor- 
ris family were fed by their cat, who brought 
in a fat hare when provisions were failing. 
The jolly Governor, riding to meeting, caught 
up little Rebecca Jones barefoot, pillioned her 
behind him, and introduced her in that state 
to the grave sanhedrim. At Germantown, 
while Richard Townsend was mowing, a 
young deer came curiously up to him, ad- 
vanced and retreated, coquetted for a long 
time, and at last struck against a tree and fell : 
we wish we could say that Townsend tamed 
the deer as St. Giles tamed the holy child ; 
but meat was scanty, and he ate it. 



IIISTOIIY OF CHESTEH. 



41) I 



Among such cliaraclcrs Penn introduced 
himself as a lawgiver. In a one-and-a-half 
story brick house on Chester Creek, he held 
the first Assembly of Pennsylvania, opening the 
session (as was habitually done for some years 
afterward in the Legislature of this State) with 
a season of silent worship. The oaken chair 
in which Penn presided was long kept, and 
the house itself survived within the present 
generation. Here, in three days, were passed 
the sixty-one articles of the Great Law of 
Pennsylvania — revolutionary laws, trivial laws, 
grand and petty matters arranged together in 
that absence of perspective which character- 
izes great moral revolutions. Some of them, 
recognizing the " consent of the governed" as 
a necessary element in the State, prepared in 
the most outspoken way for 1776 : others were 
against scolding or against health-drinking. 
Here in Chester, fresh from the presence of 
the King, he planted the idea that was to cul- 
minate in American independence. Ilis doc- 
trines were the terror of the very monarch from 
whom he received his charter; their practical 
enforcement had dethroned and slain that 
monarch's father, they were imbibed from 
Locke, and from Algernon Sidney, who in a 
year or two died for them on the scaffold. They 
were to blossom into the American Revolution. 
" Obedience without liberty is slavery," said 
Penn ; linking with this axiom another Carly- 
lean doctrine, to which we Americans are even 
yet but slowly awakening, that " liberty with- 
out obedience is confusion." 

And the Chester that we left— the Chester 
that was neither the beautiful walled town of 
England, nor the block-house-and-cave city 
of 1682— what was it like? What progress 
has it made ? 

Long after that date the inhabitants, unwil- 
ling to accept the situation, and Ijlind to the 
fact that Chester Creek could never compete 
with the Schuylkill as a feeder for Delaware 
navigation, were determined to improve it as a 
shipping port. In 1700, ninety of them peti- 
tioned the Assembly that, " Whereas Chester 
is daily improving, and in time may be a good 
place, the Queen's Road be laid out as direct 
as possible from Darby to the bridge on Ches- 
ter Creek." The road below Chester was 
called the King's Road ; the " Queen's Road," 
extending upwards to Philadelphia, and for a 
long time showed milestones sculptured with 
(^ueen Anne's arms. As a shipping-])cirt it 
03 



has had no importance, nor ever will have; 
but as a shipping-dock, for the construction 
of ^•cssels to be used elsewhere, it has risen to 
a reputation that gives it the most of its present 
consequence. The river here, a mile and a 
half broad, is not impeded by ice once in 
twenty years. Two years ago, Mr. John 
Roach, proprietor of the Morgan Iron Works, 
and of other great establishments in New York, 
bought a large extent of river frontage at 
Chester, for the establishment of a great iron 
and ship-building and engine works. Thus 
it happened that, going down through the box- 
like houses and warm gardens of Chester, to 
view the fresh Delaware, as it rolled its ame- 
thystine and cccan-like waves upon the peb- 
bles, we found the air in that region clamorous 
with the sound of hammers on iron, and al- 
ready upon the stocks a iiowd df hw^c levia- 
thans, two iron Pacific mail stL-anu is, a ferry- 
boat, a Texas ship, and a " Dickerson ship," 
to run from New ^'ork to New Orleans. The 
business of the place, long dormant, has grown 
wonderfully since the introduction of steam for 
manufactures, some thirty years baek. The 
population has doubled in ten years, and now 
reaches near fourteen thousand. Living is 
fine and cheap, oysters and fish are a drug, 
and you drink the cool water of the Delaware, 
pumped up by steam into the city reservoir. 
The development of the place is no longer left, 
as in the good old days, to accident or the 
natural growth of the limbs beyond the gar- 
ment. The modern screw is applied — the 
"Improvement Company." A year back an 
association of this kind was formed, with Wil- 
liam Ward, a self-made man, and Girard- 
CoUege orphan, at the head of it. Tracts of 
river-land were Ijought with good wharfage, 
close to the line of the P. W. & 15. railroad , lands 
graded, railway liranches grafted on the main 
stem, Idiots laid out, three grand manufactories 
started. When natural advantages are irre- 
sistible, and then superadded forces of this 
kind are applied by intelligent speculators, a 
city can sleep no longer : she ;;/;«/ be great. 

An antiquarian might strike a line of inves- 
tigation by taking hold of the times before the 
application of steam to manufacturing, and 
tracing up the industries fed by the water- 
powers which concentrate at Chester. Four 
streams (called in Southern dialect "creeks") 
enter the Delaware within two miles of each 
other in the neiiililiorhood of the town — Ches- 



I!)2 



IIISTOKY OF CIIESTEK. 



UT Creek, Ridley Creek, Cruin Creek, Darby 
Creek. Not only do the harvests they traverse, 

Send down the air a greeting to the mills 
Oil the tlidl thunder of alternate ilails, 

l.iil ihc oilt.iii and lll.res from half the Stales 
in the Union are woven into tissues by mills 
upon their banks. Some are very ancient, and 
yield curious histories. Up on Chester Creek 
the "Ivy Mills'' iDaper-mill, which was the 
pioneer of this species of manufactures on the 
American continent, still stands ; it was already 
.'.ncicnl when Benjamin Franklin's prinling- 
liaper and the sheets for the Continental Cur- 
rency were made there. The " I\y Mills'' 
was the very last hand-mill in the United Slates 
to succumb to machinery. A mile off is 
"(lien Mills," where the peculiar paper now 
used by the Treasury Department for the 
L'nitctl States Currency is made — an agent of 
the Dei)arlment residing near the mill, with a 
force to guard it from violation. In one of 
the buildings the Messrs. Willcox manufacture 
most of the music-paper used in the United 
States, and a grade, celebrated in the trade 
of collar-paper. Near Glen Riddle, on Ches- 
ter .Creek, at Crozerville, John I'. Crozer 
established his colossal fortune by the altera- 
tion of old historic paper and grist-mills into 
woolen and cotton-factories, and died full of 
honors. On Crum Creek, the Wallingford 
cotton-mills have been owned in the family 
of the present proprietor, Mr. Lew is, for more 
than a hundred years. In this locality again, 
was the first railroad ever built in the United 
States. It was a gravity road, like the cele- 
brated switchback at Mauch Chunk, and was 
made in 1809, by Thomas Leiper, to connect 
his granite cpiarries with his landing on Crum 
Creek. 

In 1850, Chester gave uj) to Media (five 
miles northward) its dignity as seat of justice 
for. Delaware County. Media is famed for its 
excellent Training-School for Feeble-minded 
Children ; the best of its kind in America, 
under the care of Dr. J. N. Kerlin ; also for 
its Inebriate Asylum, (kept by Dr. Joseph 
Parrish,) wittily .styled "an Aquarium," by 
one of its brilliant inmates in a paper contri- 
bution to this Magazine, Sept., 1866." 

I have a long list of marriages and 
deaths of old residents of Chester, 
wliiclt it is iin])nssi])k' to get into the 



cohnnns of a ne\vsi)ai)er in neat read- 
able form, and in many cases there 
would be a useless repetition of names 
and dates already given in family 
sketches. I liave also long lists of tlie 
same kind called the " Dtitton Re- 
cord," loaned me by Mr. Gilbert 
Cope, of West Chester. Those curious 
or interested in such matters will find 
these MSS. hereafter, deposited with 
the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 

1 have not been able to obtain any 
information concerning the fire de- 
partment of Chester, except the fol- 
lowing : When I was a boy in Ches- 
ter, there was only an old hand fire 
engine. The engine house was situ- 
ated at the southwest corner of 5 th 
and Market streets, alongside of the 
old county buildings. There are seve- 
ral fire companies now in the town, 
one of which is called the Moyair.en- 
sing Hook and Ladder Company, lo- 
cated in an old frame building at the 
southeast corner of 9th and Mechanic 
Streets;* another, the Hanley Hose 
Company, which was incorporated 
Feb. 22, 1863, and whose hose house, 
a handsome three-story brick building, 
is situated on the north side of 5th 
Street, east of Welsh Street. The com- 
pany was named in honor of John 
Hanley, who died a few years since. 

My Aunt Smith says, that the dog- 
gerel lines given at pj). 277 and '78, 
are a modern version of more ancient 
ones written about 1795, iii which her 



*On July 26, 1875, the coiner stone of the 
new building of the Moyamensing Hook and 
Ladder Company, in Broad Street, near Up- 
land, was laid with appropriate ceremonies. 
The building is to be of brick, 60 feet in length 
by 20 in width, and two stories high. This 
company was formed in 1869, and was named 
after the Moyamensing Hose of Philadelphia, 
the Truck and Hose Carriage being the gift 
of the latter. At the present time there arc 
42 active members on the roll of the cumiianv. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



493 



father's name (Dr. Martin's) was men- 
tioned, beginning thus : 

F'ire! Fire! cried Anthony Guyer, 
Where? Where? said Squire Eyre, 
It's up street, said Parson Heath, 
It's down town, said Dr. Brown, 
It's here ! It's here ! cried Charley Lear, 
It's in Anderson's Hall, said Captain Paul, 
You all are wrong ! said Peter Deshong, 
It's up in the shed, said Morris' Deb, 
You lie ! You lie ! cried Kerlin Sie, 
I'll go to it, said Mrs. Hewitt, 
You sha'nt, you sha'nt, said John Denant, 
It's time you're startin', said Dr. Martin, 
You'd better be quick, said Thomas Dick, 
I'll be there in an hour, said Richard Flower, 
Here's my oucket, said Jonathan Duckett, 
Put on tbi^ water, said Martin Carter, 
They're all too lazy, said Mrs. Daisy, 
The roof is rotten, said Johnny Shotten,' 
Keep off my toes, said Odenheimer's Rose, 
I'll make them whiz, said Odenheimer's Liz. 

The Pennsylvania Military Acade- 
my, one of the institutions of which 
Chester people are justly proud, is lo- 
cated on a portion of the old Mcllvain 
estate, in the immediate vicinity of 
Chester, and its splendid pile of col- 
legiate buildings is a striking object 
in an approaching view of the town, 
either by railroad or the river. The 
institution was originally incorporated 
by act of Assembly of April 8, 1862, 
P. L., p. 336 ; under the name of the 
" Chester County Military Academy," 
with twenty-five trustees, and located 
at West Chester, Chester County, Pa. 
By a supplement to the Act of incor- 
poration passed Feb. 21, 1868, the 
location was transferred to Chester, 
and its name altered to its present 
more appropriate one. The Principal 
of the Academy and its originator, is 
Col. Theodore Hyatt, who is assisted 
by a corps of competent instructors, 
two of whom are graduates of the 
United States Military Academy at 
West Point, one of them having been 



assigned as a military instructor under 
a late Act of Congress. The course 
of study pursued in the College, em- 
braces civil and military engineering, 
the practical sciences generally, Latin, 
Greek, French and German languages, 
togetherwith military instruction, both 
practical and theoretical. The insti- 
tution has the 'power to confer di- 
plomas, degrees, honors and licenses. 
The institution is in a Nourishing 
condition, having, during the academic 
year of 1870-71, four classes contain- 
ing a total of 139 students; who dress 
in a uniform of cadet gray, and are 
furnished with arms by the United 
States Government, viz. : 150 breech- 
loading cadet muskets of the Reming- 
ton pattern. This school is particu- 
larly deserving of success ; its disci- 
pline in study, in the barracks, and in 
the streets is excellent. To youth, 
the pomp, parade and circumstance 
of military life are ever fascinating; 
and in a college, the military disci- 
pline thus introduced is of inestimable 
advantage to the teacher, as well as of 
lasting benefit during life to the stu- 
dent. The want of the restraints that 
only military discipline can give, has 
made the majority of our colleges the 
worst possible places to send young 
men to be educated at. There is many 
a family that has had a son, a brother, 
or a young relative educated at col- 
lege, that has cause in after years to 
regret conduct caused by the unre- 
strained liberty allowed to the students 
while receiving their education at such 
institutions. I speak advisedly, not 
carelessly. 

The Delaware County Paper and 
Mail of March 27, 1877, says : ' ' The - 
second number of the Pennsylvania 
Military Academy journal. The Re- 
veille, has appeared. It gives a lengthy 



494 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



report of the lioliilay exercises at the 
Academy, on Washington's birthday; 
an account of the management of the 
military department of the institution, 
and the regulations in force respect- 
ing the uniforms worn by the cadets; 
a notice of Capt, Hyatt's lecture ; per- 
sonal notices of the whereabouts and 
movements of former cadets ; a histo- 
ry of the bayonet, and otlier interest- 
ing matter." 

Among the original purchasers of 
land in England who settled in Ches- 
ter, and some of whose descendants 
are now residents there, will be found 
the name of Jane Lownds, now Lownes, 
of whom Dr. Smith says, p. 480, she 
" came from Cheshire, where she had 
suffered persecutions in the distraint 
of her goods, in 1678, for attending 
Friends' meeting at Newton and Selsby. 
She was the widow of Hugh Lownes, 
and was accompanied to this country 
by three sons, Jaiiies, George and 
Joseph. James married Susannah 
Richards in 1692, and George, Mary 
Bowers, a woman from New England, 
in 1 701. Jane, on her first arrival, 
located iier pinxhased land in Spring- 
field Township, upon which a cave 
was built that for some time accom- 
modated the family as a dwelling. 
The site of this cave is marked by a 
stone planted by her descendants in 
1799, which bears the date of the 
l)atent for the land ( 1 685 . ) The meet- 
ing, records show the presence of 
Jane I>ownes here in May, 1684, and 
she probably had arrived here a year 
earlier. It was usual to occupy lands 
a long time before they were patented." 
[ remember well in my boyhood visit- 
ing cousin Rebecca Crosby Lownes, 
who lived in Springfield on part of the 
above mentioned tract, and her daugh- 
ters, my cousins, Sarah Crosby, and 



Hannali Lane Lownes, were my school- 
mates, both at Springfield and Ridley 
schools. 

James and Susanna Lownes had four 
children, Joseph, b. 1693; Hannah, b. 
1695 ; James, b. 1697, and Susanna. 
The family removed to Philadelphia in 
1 7 1 1 . Mary Lownes, wife of George, 
was, perhaps, a daughter of Benanuel 
Bowers, who suffered persecution in 
New England. Her children were, 
Jane, Esther, Ann, George, Mary and 
Benanuel. George, Jr., married in 
1734, Elizabeth, daughter of Morde- 
cai Maddock, of Springfield ; and his 
brother, Benanuel, married in 1774, 
Alice Williamson, daughter of John 
and Sarah, of Newtown. 

In the account of the Cowpland 
family given hereinbefore, (p. 273,) it 
is stated that John Lownes, son of Jo- 
seph and Sarah, of Philadelphia, mar- 
ried Agnes Cowpland, a daughter of 
Caleb and Sarah, of Chester, on the 
27th of the 8th mo., 1753 ; their chil- 
dren, Caleb, Sarah, Joseph, David, 
Grace, who married Curtis Lownes ; 
Agnes, who died in infancy ; and 
Agnes (2nd,) who died in 1793, aged 
16 or 17 years (reorge Lownes, and 
Elizabeth, his wife had three sons, 
Boulton, Joseph and Curtis. Boultoii 
married Hannah Lawrence, a Quaker 
lady. He died without issue. He 
gave one of his farms to Isaac New- 
ton, afterwards U. S. Commissioner 
of Agriculture. Joseph was for some 
time a Jeweller, in Chestnut east of 4th 
Street, Philadelphia. Curtis married 
his distant relative, Grace Lownes, as 
above. John Lownes was born in 
1723, and his wife, Agnes, Aug. 4, 
1727. His mother was, probably, a 
sister to her father's first wife, and a 
daughter of William Tidmarsh. To 
this record I add the following from 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



495 



the family bible : Agnes Lownes, d. 
May 2, 1775 ^ ^''^'" hi^isband, John 
Lownes, d. Aug. 13, 1807. George 
Lownes, d. 1 793 ; his son Curtis, d. 
Oct. 23, 1810. Grace Lownes, the wife 
of Curtis, d. Oct. 5, 1813. Emily 
Lownes, a dau. of Curtis and Grace, 
was /a Sept. 19, 1803; d. Jan. 1804. 
Margaret, b. Feb. 17, 1805; d. Oct. 
21, 1 810. Curtis, /'. Sept. 19, 1803 ; 
a twin brother of Emily, d. April 2, 
1821. 

John Lownes, son of Curtis and 
Grace, born March 10, 1796, was 
a farmer, of Springfield. He married 
Rebecca, daughter of John and Sarah 
Lane Crosby, of Ridley, Jan. 13, 1820, 
and died July 8, 1829, leaving sur- 
viving, his widow and two daughters, 
Sarah Crosby, who ni. Crosby P. Mor- 
ton, Sept. 19, 1839, and had one child, 
Susannah Crosby, Avho m. J. Frank 
Black, of Chester, Feb. 16, 1865 ; see 
ante, p. 145.) The other daughter, 
Hannah Lane, m. William W. Mad- 
dock, of Ridley, March 10, 1843, ^"^ 
their son Lownes, m. Elizabeth Wor- 
rall, of Ridley, Jan. 22, 1872; they 
have a son, Willie. William and Han- 
nah had one other child, Willie, who 
died in infancy. John and Rebecca 
had a son, Curtis, who died at the age 
of 3 years, July 18, 1829. 

Agnes Lownes, daughter of Curtis 
and Grace, who were marrjed Dec. 21, 
1794', became the wife of Edward Le- 
vis. She was b. May 13, 1797 ; date 
of marriage is not given, only 181- ; 
she d. May 19, 1871. Elizabeth 
Lownes, dau. of Curtis and Grace, b. 
Dei. 19, 1798; /;/. Samuel Huggins, 
May 4, 1820; she is now dead. Es- 
ther, another dau. of Curtis and Grace, 
was born Oct. 12, 1810. Nothing 
further is said regarding her in the 
Bible. 



Hugh Lownes, son of Benanuel and 
Alice, of Springfield, was married in 
1784, to Rebecca, daughter of James 
Rhoads, of Marple. Their son, Jo- 
seph, born I mo. 17, 1 787, died 4 mo. 
8, 1872, was twice married ; and had 
children, Rebecca, Hugh, William, 
Phineas, Massey, Geo. Bolton, Joseph 
and Elizabeth, born in Springfield. 

LIV. 

The following is as perfect a list of 
the Doctors of Chester as I have been 
able to compile : 



John Goodson, 
Joseph Richards,* 
Paul Jackson, 
David Jackson, 
Jacob Tobin, 
Richard Tidmarsh, 
William Martin, 
George W. Bartram, 
Job. H. TerriU, 
Dr. Brown, 
William Gray, 
Samuel Anderson, 
Charles P. Fairlamb, 
Ellis C. Harlan, 
James J. Porter, 
Jesse Kersey Bonsall, 
John M. Allen, 
Joshua Owen, 
Charles J. Morton, 
William J. Urie, 

Dr 



William B. Ulrich, 
J. Larkin Forwood, 
Isaac R. T. Coates, 
E. Ridgely Graham, 
William T. Bladen, 
Coates Preston, 
Theodore S. Christ, 
Robert P. Mercer, 
William W. Johnson, 
T. E. Heenan, 
Henry M. Lewis, \/ 
EUwood Harvey, 
John F. M. Forwood, 
Thomas J. Mullin, 
Joseph B. Dillworth, 
Charles G. M. Griffiths, 
A. P. Fields, 
William S. Ridgely, 
Samuel Starr, 
Eugene K. Mott, 
Dare. 



Dr. John Goodson, who practiced 
medicine in Chester as early as 1681, 
was afterwards Deputy Governor of 
the Province, under Gov. William 
Markham, by a commission from Penn, 
bearing date 9th mo. 24, 1694. See 
I C. jR., 429. Dr. Paul Jackson died 
in 1767, and Dr. David Jackson grad- 
uated in 1768." He was Quarter-Mas- 
ter General of Pennsylvanifi during 
the Revolution. Dr. William Martin 
graduated in 1786. Dr. Porter lived 
in the old Porter mansion, but was no 
relation to the Commodore. Dr. Dare 

■^"Joseph Richards is mentioned .is a physi- 
sian, owning properly in Clicsler, i)rior to 1 700. 



496 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



was a HoiiKt'opathic Physician in Ches- 
ter about 1861-2. In earlier days there 
must have been, of course, other phy- 
sicians practicing in Upland and Ches- 
ter, whose names are now unknown. 

The following is a brief account of 
the Delaware Co. Medical Society. 

In the spring of 1850, Dr. George 
Martin of Concord Township, and 
Dr. Ellwood Harvey of Birmingham 
Township, resolved to attempt the or- 
ganization of a County Society to co- 
operate with other county medical 
societies, and to become a part of the 
State and National associations then 
recently established. The first meet- 
ing was held in the law-ofifice of John 
M. Broomall, in Chester, on the second 
day of May, 1850. 

On motion of Dr. Harvey, Dr. 
Joshua Owen, of Chester, was called 
to the chair, and Dr. Martin appointed 
Secretary. A preamble and resolutions 
setting forth the necessity for organiza- 
tion, were offered by Dr. Martin, and 
were adopted. 

On motion of Dr. Harvey, a Com- 
mittee of three was appointed to draft 
a Constitution, which was adopted at 
a subsequent meeting, held in Chester, 
on May 30, 1850, when the Society 
had its birth, with the following mem- 
bers : Drs. Jesse Young, Joshua Owen, 
George Martin, Charles S. Heysham, 
Manly Emanuel, Charles J. Morton, 
Ellwood Harvey and Robert K. Smith. 

Dr. Jesse Young was the first Presi- 
dent ; Dr. Joshua Owen, Vice Presi- 
dent ; Dr. R. K. Smith, Secretary ; 
and Dr. E. Harvey, Treasurer. 

A committee appointed to ol)tain 
the names of all the physicians in the 
county, reported as follows : Isaac 
Anderson, Benjamin Anderson, Caleb 
Ash, J. M. Allen, Dr. Atkins, Joseph 
Black fan, \\. Rush Black fan, Samuel 



A. Barton, Jesse K. Bonsall, Manly 
Emanuel,WilliamGrey, J. N. Griffiths, 
Charles S. Heysham, John T. Hud- 
dleson, Dr. Hutton, Dr. Gregg, Dr. 
Lewis, Charles J. Morton, Geo. Mar- 
tin, Rolph C. Marsh, J. M. Moore, 
Joshua Owen, J. J. Porter, C. W. 
Pennock, Joseph Rowland, Dr. Rose, 
Geo. Smith, Robert K. Smith, Thomas 
Turner, Joseph Wilson, Jesse Young, 
and Ellwood Harvey. The Society 
retained vitality and was useful until 
Feb. 24, 1857, when the attendance 
at meetings having greatly fallen off, 
it was unanimously resolved to dissolve 
the Society. 

A new organization of the same 
name, and with the same purposes, 
was organized on March 3, 1857. A 
new Constitution was adopted and new 
officers elected. Dr. Hillborn Dar- 
lington was President; Dr. Manly 
Emanuel, Vice President ; Dr. G. B. 
Hotchkin, Secretary ; and Dr. Chas. 
N. Budd, Treasurer. This organiza- 
tion lasted until May 26, 1857 — a 
little more than two months — and ac- 
complished nothing. 

On April 19, 1861, by invitation of 
Dr. Joseph Parrish, Superintendent of 
the Pennsylvania Training School for 
Feeble Minded Children, near Media, 
a number of physicians from various 
parts of the county met to witness an 
exhibition of the pupils of that institu- 
tion. It was stated that invitations 
had been sent to every physician in the 
county that was known to Dr. Par- 
rish, but a heavy storm and the mili- 
tary excitement then prevailing, had 
deterred many from attending. Those 
present were : Drs. C. S. Heysham, 
H. Darlington, S. A. Barton, C. Ash, 
H. Pleasants, J. S. Parke, A. W. 
Mathues, James W. Hoey, G. B. 
Hotchkin, J. M. Allen, J. L. For- 



HISTORY OF CHESTP:R. 



497 



wood, W. H. Forwood, Joseph Par- 
rish, and Isaac N. Kerlin. It was 
then unanimously resolved, that the 
Delaware County Medical Society 
should be revived. In accordance 
with that resolution another meeting 
was held at the same place on May lo, 
1 86 1. The Constitution formed in 
1 85 7 was adopted. The officers were : 
Emanuel, President ; Parrish, Viee 
President ; (i. B. Hotchkin, Secre- 
tary; and Joseph Rowland, Treas- 
urer. Meetings continued to be held 
occasionally for two or three years, 
but were very small and not of much 
interest. The army drew so many phy- 
sicians out of the county, that those 
who remained were too busy to attend 
Society meetings. 

On May 16, 1865, a meeting was 
held in the office of Dr. J. L'. For- 
wood, and on his motion it was re- 
solved, that "In consequence of the 
long interruption to the meetings occa- 
sioned by the general unsettlement of 
the country; the Constitution be for- 
mally re-adopted; the signatures of 
those present be affixed as active mem- 
bers ; and that other members be here- 
after balloted for as required by the 
Constitution." 

Dr. Emanuel was elected President; 
Dr. J. L. Forwood, Vice President ; 
Dr. I. N. Kerlin, Secretary ; and Dr. 
Charles J. Morton, Treasurer. The 
meeting transacted some further busi- 
ness, and there were no meetings for 
nearly four years. 

On March 16, 1869, a meeting was 
held at Dr. Parrish's Sanitarium, Media, 
and the following officers were elected : 
President, Dr. Emanuel ; Vice Pre- 
sident, J. L. Forwood ; Sec?-etary, 
Isaac N. Kerlin ; Treasurer, Theodore 
Christ. This was the first meeting of 
a continuous series down to the present 



day. The meetings are now held 
monthly at houses of the different mem - 
bers, special notice being sent by mail 
to every member. 

The present organization is as fol- 
lows : President, Edwin Fussell ; Vice 
Pre St., M. Fisher Longstreth; Treas- 
urer, Theodore S. Christ; Secretary, 
Linnaeus Fussell ; CcJisors, Theodore S. 
Christ, Hillborn Darlington and Ell- 
wood Harvey. 

The following named physicians of 
the county have been, and still are, 
members of the Society. 



George Martin, 
Ellwood Harvey, 
Manly Emanuel, 
Charles T. Heysham, 
Robert K. Smith, 
Joshua Owen, 
Jesse Young, 
C. W. Pennock, 
Charles J. Morton, 
Caleb Ash, 
Joseph Wilson, 
Samuel A. Barton, 
Thomas Turner, 
Ruben H. Smith, 
J. C. Hutton, 
Joseph Rowland, 
A. W. Mathues, 
George Smith, 
J. Howard Taylor, 
Jesse W. Griffith, 
Joseph NVilson, 
J. P. Mcllvain, 
J. T. Huddlesoli, 
J. Morris Moore, 
Hillborn Darlington, 
James T. Hill, 
J. Siter Parke, 
Edward Young, 
John A Thompson, 
G. B. Hotchkin, 
Edward Maris, 
John M. Allen, 
Jonathan L. Forwood, 
Joseph Parrish, 
Isaac N. Kerlin, 
Joseph Rowland, 
James J. McGee, 
W. H. Forwood, 



Charles D. Meigs, 
H. Pleasants, 
Henry M. Kirk, 
H. T. W. Dickeson, 
Isaac Taylor Coates, 
T. L. Leavitt, 
F. Ridgeley Graham, 
Theodore S. Christ, 
J. Pyle Worrall, 
Lewis M. Emanuel, 

C. C. V. Crawford, 
Orrin Cooley, 

T. E. Henan, 
S. P. Bardeson, 
William B. Ulrich, 
James E. Garretson, 
M. Fisher Longstreth, 
W. C. Bacon, 
John F. M. Forwood, 
J. M. Rose, 
Henry Pennypacker, 
Henry M. Lyons, 
John G. Thomas, 
Jacob Boon, 
M. Matthias, 

D. Francis Condie, 
Henry M. Carse, 
Edwin Fussell, 
Linnaeus Fussell, 

E. T. Gammage, 
John W. Eckfeldt, 
Dillwyn Green, 
Frank Rowland, 
Rebecca L. Fussell, 
D. W. Jefferies, 
W. W. Johnson, 
Samuel Trimble, 
Wm. S. Ridgely. 



In naming the officers who were first 
chosen, and those who were elected 
at each re-organization, it should not 
be understood that they are the only 
members who have been complimented 



49,8 



lUSTOin' OF CHESTEK. 



by such distinction. In tact, new 
officers are elected yearly, or the old 
ones re-elected, and it has thus hap- 
pened that either as officers of the So- 
ciety or as delegates to the State Con- 
vention, and to the National Associa- 
tion, nearly every member has received 
all the honor that such ajjpointments 
can confer. 

The objects of the Society have been 
pretty fully attained, notwithstand- 
ing its frequent interruptions, and has 
served to keep up a good feeling among 
its members to effect their mutual im- 
provement ; to establish and preserve a 
just code of professional ethics ; to 
maintain official relations of its mem- 
bers with the State and National Asso- 
ciations ; and in various other ways 
to increase the usefulness of the pro- 
fession and advance the interests of 
the members. Every kind of vain 
pretension to unusual skill, or to the 
possession of valuable secret remedies 
is forbidden by the Code of Ethics 
adopted by all the medical societies in 
the United States, and in accordance 
with that code the Delaware County 
Medical Society expelled one member 
for advertising a secret remedy for sale. 
In accordance with this action was the 
appointment of a committee by the 
same meeting, May 26, 1853, ''to 
draft resolutions expressing the appro- 
bation of this Society in relation to 
Y. S. Walter's constant refusal to pub- 
lish quack advertisements in the Dela- 
ware County Republican^ 

As showing the liberal .sentiments of 
Delaware County Physicians, it may 
be mentioned, that an attempt was 
made by one me mber to cast reproach 
upon another for having accepted a 
professorship in the Female Medical 
College of Pennsylvania, but the effort 
was not only unsustained, but was dis- 



api)roved by every other member of 
the Society. It may also be mentioned 
in this connection, that three ex-pro- 
fessors of that college, and one lady 
graduate of it, are now members of the 
Society. In 1851, Drs. Harvey, R. 
K. Smith, and Martin, were appointed 
to make a sanitary report to the State 
Medical Society, which they did ; and 
Drs. Martin and Harvey, assisted by 
Dr. Samuel Trimble of Concord Town- 
ship, an expert mineralogist, made a 
pretty thorough geological survey of 
the County and a chart, which was 
published in the transactions of the 
State Society. This was the first geo- 
logical chart of the County ever made, 
and is the basis of all subsequent pub- 
lications. In 1853, the Society united 
with the Chester County Medical So- 
ciety in the publication of a Medical 
Journal intended chiefly to contain re- 
ports of the transactions of the two 
societies, but it was not long con- 
tinued. • In conclusion it may be said 
that the organization was never so 
thoroughly vital as now, the meetings 
being well attended by most of the 
more prominent physicians of the 
county. The lectures, essays, reports 
of cases, discussions, &c., are highly 
interesting and instructive, and the 
good feeling that pervades every meet- 
ing makes them .social events of more 
than ordinary interest to all who are 
so fortunate as to attend. 

I give here an account of the pro- 
ceedings of one such meeting of the 
Society held recently, (1874.) 

" A stated meeting of the Delaware County 
Medical Society was held on Thursday after- 
noon at the residence of Dr. Christ, in Ches- 
ter, Dr. Fussel, President, in the chair. Mem- 
bers present, Drs. Ilarvcy, Ulrich, Christ, 
Green, Kerlin, Jefferics and Allen. In the 
absence of the Seeretary, Dr. Allen was a))- 
jjointcd Sciriiary pro triii. 



HlSTOllY OF CHE8TKH. 



409 



rrofessor Addiiiell llewson, of Philadel- 
phia, was present by invitation of the Society, 
and delivered an interesting and instructive 
lecture on the use of Earth Dressing in differ- 
ent varieties of wounds, ulcers, and other in- 
juries and diseases requiring a local applica- 
tion. The lecture was followed by a general 
discussion, participated in by the several mem- 
bers of the Society, upon the subject. On 
motion of Dr. Allen, a vote of thanks was 
tendered Dr. Hewson for his very able and 
entertaining discourse. 

The Training School, at Media, was se- 
lected as the ne.xt place of meeting; lecturer, 
Dr. Harvey. 

After the adjournment of the Society the 
members were invited into the dining room, 
where an elegant and substantial entertain- 
ment had been prepared by Mrs. Christ, to 
which full justice was done. 

With many thanks to Dr. C. and lady for 
their h^pitality, the Society adjourned." 

The following sketch will recall an 
eminent Physician of Chester. 

William Gray, son of George and 
Martha, 7n. Rachel Hill in 1791, dau. 
of John and Mary, h. in 1770. Wil- 
liam, their son, b. 1795, was the well- 
known Doctor William Gray, who 
lived at the N. W. cor. of 5 th and 
Market Streets. His father died in 
1795, and his mother Rachel married 
Nathan Sharpies in 1804, and died in 
1808. 

Martha Gray, dau. of William and 
Rachel, /'. 1793, m. William Palmer 
in 1822, and had a son William Gray 
Palmer, b. 1824, and Moses Palmer, b. 
1825. 

Dr. William Gray, had an uncle 
Thomas Steel, a miller in Darby, and 
commenced to learn the business, but 
becoming disgusted with it, studied 
medicine under Doctor Warfield of 
Maryland, a relation of his, and a 
cousin of the Leipers. The Doctor 
married Martha Bonsall, a daughter of 
Edward and Hannah. Mrs. Bonsall 
(i » 



was a daughter of John and Martha 
Gibbons of Chester. 

Dr. Smith says, p. 491: "Thomas 
Pearson, freqtiently called Thomas Per- 
son, with his wife Margery, came from 
England with W^illiam Penn when on 
his first visit to Pennsylvania. If any 
reliance can be placed on tradition, it 
was upon his suggestion that the name 
of Upland was changed to Chester," 
&c. Tradition is probably at fault in 
this case, as the subject of Dr. Smith's 
notice arrived the next year after Penn. 
Beside this person there was another 
Thomas Pierson, who says himself 
that he arrived in Upland, Sept. 28, 
1683, as will more fully appear by the 
following paper and remarks thereon, 
in the handwriting of Thomas Pierson, 
himself. The paper is endorsed " Cer- 
tificate, Joseph Kippen in Bristol," 
and is as follows : 

"Bristoll, the 24th of 8'"' 1675. 

To all people to whom these presents 
shall come this I signifie & certyfie 
that The Bearer hereof: Tho : Peirson : 
hath served me the ffuU terme of seven 
years according to his Indenture Re- 
corded in the * * * of this * * * in 
witness whereof I have hereunto set my 
hand the day and year above written. 
Joseph Kippin." 

The remarks of Pierson are in the 
following words: "On.y'' 12th day of 
y' 8th month in y^ yeare 1675, I had 
sj^rved my Apprenticeship. On y'' 2d 
day of y® 1 2th month in y" yeare Afores'^ 
I went from Bristoll for London. On 
y* 14th day of y^ 7th month in y" yeare 
1676 I sailed from the Downes intend- 
ing for Maryland in company w**" Wm. 
Dixson. On y*" 9th day ofthe 9th month 
in y*" yeare 1676, I Arrived in Great 
Wicka Comma Coe River in Maryland 
in y° Ship Called the 'Joseph & Ben- 



-■)()() 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



janiiii.' Matthew I'ain Conimandcr of 
)'■ same. 'V. P. On y"-' 14th day of 
y'' 12th month in y" yeare 1681-2, I 
sailed from without y"' Capes of Cheseo- 
l)eak bay in Maryland for England 
in the Ship Called the ' Comfort' of 
Bristol!. Thomas Whitop master. On 
or about y'' 20th day of March 1682, I 
arrived in Kingroad. On y° 25th day 
of July in y'-'year 1683, I set saile from 
Kingroad in y" 'Comfort,' John Reed 
master, and arrived at Vpland in Penn- 
silvania y'' 28th of September 1683." 
It will be noticed that Pierson calls 
Chester Vpland in 1683. He was no 
insignificant person, or I could not so 
easily identify his handwriting, which 
is very neat and distinct. Soon after 
his arrival here he was appointed by 
Thomas Holme, the Surveyor General 
of the Province, a Deputy Surveyor, 
and his Warrant is in possession of the 
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 
together with the paper copied above, 
Thomas Peirson, Surveyor of New Cas- 
tle County, and Isaac Taylor, Surveyor 
of Chester County, were the persons 
appointed by William Penn, in the 
year 1701, to run the circular line of 
twelve miles around New Castle, here- 
in before fully referred to. 

There is a letter in the Historical So- 
ciety, written by William Penn, com- 
mencing as follows: "Upland, Oct. 
29, 1682," addressed to some gentle- 
men not Friends, requesting them to 
meet him on Thursday next, (so called) 
Nov. 2, 1682. I think these things 
show conclusively that the traditional 
.story of Penn and Pierson, and the 
change of name of Upland to Chester, 
on the arrival oi the ' ' Welcome' ' there, 
is all bosh. 

The instructions to Thomas Pierson, 
Deputy Surveyor for the county of New 
Castle, are very full and interesting. 



and never ha\ing yet appeared in j^rint 
they are here given as follows : 

" First. Thou art to repair to ye said county 
and there take the charge & care upon thee, 
as being chosen by the President & Council 
for ye employ, to serve under me as my De- 
puty & to Survey & set out Lands liy war- 
rants from ye Proprietary & Govern' r & form- 
erly Directed to William Welch, & not yet exe- 
cuted, as also all war'ts formerly or hereafter 
directed to thee from myself by virtue of War'ts 
from ye Com'rs for granting War'ts to persons 
in that County for Lands there, the same to be 
laid out if possible & convenient in the way 
of Townshipps, consisting of Five thousand 
acres if there be convenient room for ye same, 
allowing a street of fifty foot in the middle of 
every Townshipp, as also a Street of forty foot 
between Townshipp & Townshipp, as a regular 
access from one Townshipp to another. 

2dly. In all thy tield works take^care to 
set do\\n in the Margent all immovable mat- 
ters, as Rivers, Rivelletts, Lakes, Meadows, 
Swamps, Rocks, Mountains, Mines, Quarrys, 
sorts of earth, more than ordinary sorts of 
Wood, leaving not out any quantity of Land 
for Waste or unprotitable, without Special 
order from ye Proprietary & Govern'r. 

3dly. In all thy Protractions of ye quantities 
of Lands, lay down the Draughts or figures 
thereof on a Scale of fourty perch in an inch 
& not to give out unto any ^son whatsoever 
the figure or drauglit of any Land by thee 
surveyed without special order from me, upon 
penalty of paying me double the value of the 
Survey money for ye Same. 

4thly. Thou art to demand & require of 
all "^sons concerned, for ye survey of Lands 
sufficient conveyance to & from ye .said Sur- 
veyed Lands with hands necessary (yt may 
be unconcerned, or otherwise attested if possi- 
ble) for carrying ye Chain, marking ye Trees 
& bounds & necessary provisions the while, 
as being so ordered by the Govern'r over and 
above the Stablishment, allowed by the Gov- 
ern'r for ye Survey of Lands in yl County, and 
as oft as is necessary send me an account of 
thy Proceedings and Passages yt I may give 
account thereof to the Govern'r. 

Lastly. I hereiw empower thee to demand 
& receive the .Survey money allowed by ye 
Governr for all Lands by thee Surveyed, the 
one niovctv whereof tlu)u art to take & recci\e 



HISTORY OF CHESTER 



mi 



for thy own use, as compensation for ye art & 
Labor of Survey, the other moyety to secure 
& detaine in thy hands till further orders from 
the President & Council or myself & and to 
observe and follow such other & further orders, 
as may hereafter be sent thee from the Gov- 
ern'r or myself. Given under my hand & Seal 
at Philadelphia, the 24th of the 7th mo. 1684. 
Tho : Holme, Surv'r Gen'rl, [ls.] 
And further if any persons have war't for 
Lands in their own hands, & not yet given 
in to the former office then in such cases thou 
art to take the sdwar'ts without further orders 
from me and to execute them & carefully trans- 
mitt them to me. 

Tho: Holme, Surv'r Gen'rl. 
ffurther the first work thou art to do, when 
thou comes to New Castle, thou art carefully 
to admeasure & survey from ye hither bounds 
of Newcastle Town, as near the River as con- 
veniently may be until thou come to the lower 
part of the further side of Concord Town- 
shipp, & to hire men to assist thee & carry the 
Chaine, at as reasonable rates as thou canst & 
when done to finde thereby the true distance 
from ye bounds of Newcastle Town to ye lower 
end of ye said Townshipp of Concord, yt so I 
may know how many miles that distance is & 
where ye Twelve miles in a straight line from 
Newcastle terminates, that I may be able to 
give an account to ye President & Provincial 
Council thereof, and when thou hast found 
the said distance, thou art at ye sd Twelve 
miles end in a straight Line set some Posts, 
or some other visible mark ; yt may be found 
out, and from thence run a line of the same 
Twelve miles distance down to ye River Dela- 
ware, & there make the like visible mark, yt so 
I may know where the twelve miles from New- 
castle, in a straight line ends upon ye sd River 
& when thou art satisfied of the truth of thy 
work & where the twelve miles ends upon ye 
River, then run from ye River side backwards 
in the woods, as fane as will paralell the upper 
line of Concord & run yt distance to ye sd 
upper line of Concord & either come or send 
me a true account hereof. And call to Henry 
■ Hollingsworth for what war'ts & returns he 
hath in his hands, or any other thing relating 
to survey. 

Tho: Hulmk, Surv'r (Jen'rI." 

The Deputy Surveyor, Thomas Pier- 
son, probably never lived at Chester. 



He belonged to Newark Monthly Meet- 
ing, and married Rachel Sharpley at 
that meeting in 1686; she died 7 mo. 
2, 1687, and Avas buried at Newark. 
Thomas produced his certificate from 
Newark Monthly Meeting to Concord 
Monthly Meeting, 7 mo. 12, 1709. 
Gilbert Cope, the Historian, says: 

" Thomas Pierson, the Surveyor of New 
Castle County, was not the person mentioned 
by Dr. Smith as a settler in Marple, and the 
grandfather of Benjamin West. The foiTner 
appears to have resided in New Castle County 
for many years, yet he frequently made sur- 
veys in Chester County, and there is evidence 
that he was considered a careful surveyor. 

In 1686 he married Rachel Sharpley, but 
she died the next year and was buried at New- 
ark Meeting, which was on the east side of 
Bi^andywine. Early in 1690, he married a 
second wife. Rose Dixson, probably the daugh- 
ter of Henry Dixson, of New Castle. About 
the year 1 709, he became a member of Concord 
Meeting, and in that year his daughter Susanna 
was married to John Mendenhall, who settled 
in Cain Township. It may be here stated 
that Susanna was also the name of his mother, 
whose death occurred during his first visit to 
America. In 17 15, his daughter Rose, mar- 
ried Aaron Mendenhall, a brother of John, 
and they also settled in Cain Township. In 
the genealogy of the Mendenhall family, pub- 
lished at Cincinnati, in 1864, this Thomas 
Pierson is confounded with the grandfather of 
Benjamin West, but beyond these two daugh- 
ters I have met with no account of any chil- 
dren, and he doubtless made his home with 
one of them toward the close of his life. I 
believe the minutes of Concord Monthly Meet- 
ing from 1709 to 1716, are in his handwriting. 
In the latter year he was appointed an ' over^ 
seer' of Cain Meeting, in which station he 
continued until his death, which occurred 
Sept. (7 mo.) 29, 1722. 

In a registry of arrivals in possession of the 
Historical Society, it is stated that 'Thomas 
Pierson, mason, Margaret, his wife, John, his 
brother, and Mary Smith, his sister, came from 
Pownall-fee, in Cheshire, in the Endeavour o{ 
London, and arrived here 29th of 7 mo., 1683. 
This was but a day later than the Surveyor 
has recordeil his arrival at Upland, and the 



502 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



fact alniDSt made me doii!)! tlieir heiiii,' distinct 
pcrstms. However, we fiiul in the records of 
Cliester Monthly Meeting; that Thomas Pear- 
son or Peirson, and McVi^eiy, his wife, lived 
in Marple, and the births of their ten children 
are also given. The maiden name of Mar- 
gery, was Smith, and her sister Mary became 
the wife of Daniel Williamson, the ancestor of 
the family of that name in this county. Of 
course this Thomas Pearson could not have 
suggested the name of Chester for Upland, 
unless he had made a voyage to this country 
prior to his final settlement. His will is dated 
Oct. 1 6, 1730, and proven March 25, 1734, 
and in it he mentions his wit'e, Margery, sons 
Robert, Lawrence, Enoch, John and Abel, 
and daughters, .Sarah, wife of John West, 
Mary, wife of Nicholas Rogers, and Margery, 
wife of Peter Thompson. 

Lawrence Pearson had a large family who 
settled in Berks County, and I have under- 
stood that Judge Pearson \\'as a descendant of 
this branch. 

Thomas PierNon, the Surveyor, always, I 
believe, spelled his name as here given. I 
have seen many of his surveys, and have felt 
almost an affectionate interest in his history." 

In boyhood I was very fond of horses, 
and am yet. I think there is no more 
beautiftil or graceful animal in the 
world than a fine full-blooded horse; 
my favorite color is a bay, then a dap- 
pled gray. My step-grandfather, John 
F. Hill, was passionately fond of fine 
liorses, and always had half a dozen or 
more choice animals among the numer- 
ous horses he once kept at his place in 
Ridley, just north of Ridley Park. 
Two fine teams were used there, of six 
horses each, in hauling building stone 
from the first quarry he opened on his 
place, to his landings on Crum Creek. 
(Jne fine animal called Dread, he 
won at a race near Baltimore; another 
a l)eautiful gentle bay mare called 
Kate, a fast trotter, was stolen by 
one of his men, and taken to Long Is- 
land, and entered for a race at the 
coiu'se there. 'I'his led lo the detec- 



tion of the thief, and grandfather drove 
to Long Island in his gig, and brought 
the mare back and the thief also, the 
latter in his gig with him, handcuffed. 
He had also several race-horses ; one, 
Buzzard, was a dapple-gray, gentle 
as a lamb, and I used to ride him every- 
where when I was about ten years old ; 
another, a dark brown horse, called 
Knddy, ran several scrub-races at 
Chester, from the old brick school 
house on Welsh Street, to the Poplar 
trees, on the old Queen's road, now 
called Morton Avenue. This was the 
favorite racing grounds, after Coch- 
ran's Race Course was discontinued. 
Crossman Lyons used to ride in these 
scrub-races an old horse called Bttf- 
fer; he was seldom beaten; Buffer 
was a sorrel horse, with a white face 
and legs. He belonged to Mr. John 
Irwin of the " White Swan Hotel." 

Cochran's Race Course was on the 
property of the late John Cochran, now 
North Ward, Chester. The Judge's 
stand stood opposite where John O. 
Deshong's residence now is, on the 
east side of Edgmont Avenue. The 
track was a mile in length and a very 
good one, with the exception of one 
place which had a slight rise, and to 
make it easy the ground had to be filled 
in, and consequently after a rain the 
track was heavy at that place, and tried 
the bottom and strength of the horses ; 
it was at the back part of the track over 
towards the poplar trees on the Phila- 
delphia road. 

John Irwin was the owner of two 
horses. Admiral Wilson, a dark bay 
stallion, and Tatififfy, a grey geld- 
ing. Mr. Greene from the upper part 
of the county, whose christian name I 
have forgotten, had a very fast bay 
mare. John Cochran had three horses, 
one a stallion. Samuel M. Leiper had 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



503 



two horses; Dennis Kelly, of Kelly- 
ville, had two horses; these animals 
were all fine running stock. The races 
were the "Chester Spring Races," 
and the "Chester Fall Races," each 
continuing two days. Cochran's or 
Greene's horses generally won the 
races, and were the favorites in the 
betting. The Tantiffy horse it was 
thought could beat any of the others, 
if he would not bolt from the track ; 
he was a hard one to ride, and fre- 
quently threw his rider, consequently 
he could not win. I think Thomas 
Clyde afterwards owned this horse, 
having bought him of Irwin. At the 
last races on Cochran's Course there 
was trouble with the Irish quarrymen, 
and a fight, in consequence of which 
the Course was closed by order of Court. 
The Course was laid out about 1832 
or '3, and abandoned about 1836. I 
am not certain about those dates as I do 
not remember much about the Chester 
races. I recall, however, being at one 
and going home, grandfather driving 
out the Philadelphia road in a carriage, 
in the midst of other carriages, gigs, 
sulkys, men on horseback, clouds of 
dust, the yells of excited men, the 
shrieks of frightened women, horses 
going at the top of their speed, grand- 
mother holding me on her lap, and 
John F. Hill with his fast bays, laughing 
at the crazy crowd that came yelling 
after him. 

I remember that there were in those 
days some fast trotting horses in the 
vicinity of Chester. We had not got 
to 2.40 then, 3 minutes was considered 
fast. Robert P. Crosby had a bay nag, 
named Towstring, called a 3-minute 
mare. John F. Hill's Dread, was a 
3-minute horse. Edward R. Crosby 
had a grey horse called Jim Crow, 
which I think he entered for a race 



on Cochran's course, and came to 
grief. 

The first cattle show in Delaware 
County, was held at Chester, on the lot 
on the left hand side of Edgmont 
Avenue, between the former residences 
of Joshua P. Eyre, dec'd, and Samuel 
Edwards, Esq., dec'd. The greater 
number of the cattle exhibited were 
owned by Mr. Penn Gaskill, living at 
that time near Philadelphia. 

A friend to whom I am indebted for 
much of the foregoing information, 
adds: "The first vessel (of any size) 
built in Chester, since my recollection, 
was the packet sloop Jonas Preston, 
built by Andrew Wheaton for J. P. & 
W. Eyre. She was constructed on 
Jonas Eyre's property, about one mile 
up Chester Creek, above its mouth, and 
was superceded by a steam barge, the 
Chester, built by P. Baker & Co., 
which was sold to Capt. Taggart and 
others, and another built by J. & C. 
D. Pennell, and called the Lamokin, 
She runs from Avhat was formerly called 
Grubb's or Pierson's wharf, now called 
Pennell 's wharf, on Chester Creek. In 
1 87 1, a company incorporated as the 
Merchants and Manufacturers' Steam 
Freight Line, built a freight steamer, 
called the City of Chester. She now 
runs from Bradley's wharf, on the west 
side of the creek. 

Prior to the Jonas Preston was the 
packet John Wall, a very fast sailing 
vessel, commanded by John Hart, who 
was a relative of Archibald T. Dick. 
He died in the old house adjoining 
Chester Bridge, now kept as an oyster 
saloon. William Grubb had charge 
of the packet storehouse, afterwards 
Samuel Long took charge, and Grubb 
moved down to a house on the lower 
pier. 

Previous to the John Wall, Richard 



504 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



Flower of Chester mills, owned a sloop, 
the Chester Planter, which he used 
to carry flour from the mill to Phila- 
delphia, about the beginning of the 
]>resent century, almost sixty years ago. 
She \vas run aground at Mount Melech, 
opposite No. I mill at Upland, and 
there remained until she went to pieces 
by decay and the action of the water." 
During the first week in March 1874, 
an old schooner with a cargo of oysters 
was lying at Muir's wharf on Chester 
C'reek. Nearly thirty years ago this 
same craft was launched on the creek 
at a point now occupied by Bunting's 
lumber yard, having been built for 
Aaron Buck, by Archibald McArthur, 
a shipwright, well known to the older 
residents of Chester. She was chris- 
tened Richard Powell, which name 
she still bears. The timbers are of 
Delaware County Oak, and are as solid 
and sound as the day they were when 
first put in the frame. The vessel would 
evidently be improved by a coat of 
paint, and a general overhauling, al- 
though she has every indication of be- 
ing still a staunch craft. The Po7vell 
is sixty feet in length, eighteen feet 
l)eam, and will carry two thousand 
1 )askets of oysters. The original anchor 
chain, now reduced by wear to about 
one third of its former thickness, is 
liciit upon the second anchor. The 
\cssel is owned and commanded by 
("apt. Leeds, of Gloucester, N. J. 

LV. 

The Republican of Dec. 10, 1852, 
says: "A schooner, rating 250 tons, 
was launched on Wednesday last from 
the ship-yard of Mr. Sinex, in this 
Borough. She wa.s christened the 
Maria Pickup, that being the name of 
the wife of one f)f the owners. She 



is much the largest vessel ever built 
here," t^cc. I do not propose, in this 
work, to enter into a description of the 
several ship-yards of Chester, suffice it 
to say, that "The Delaware River Iron 
Ship Building and Engine Works," of 
which John Roach is the President, 
are the most extensive. I wish, how- 
ever, to contrast the present with the 
past. In 1852, a schooner of 250 tons 
was the largest vessel ever launched in 
Chester. On (this day) Mar. 18, 1874, 
one of the largest iron vessels ever built 
in the world, was launched at Chester, in 
the presence of many members of Con- 
gress, a large number of invited guests, 
and over 5000 spectators. This new 
steamer is of iron, built to run between 
San Francisco, Japan and China. She 
is called The City of Peking, and 
her consort. The City of Tokio, which 
is to be launched in about a month, 
were both built for the Pacific Mail 
Company, and each will cost one mil- 
lion of dollars. They are both of the 
same size. The City of Pekittg is 
in length over all, 420 feet ; length on 
load line, 396 feet 6 inches ; length of 
beam moulded, 47 feet 4 inches ; depth 
of hold, 38 feet 6 inches ; tonnage, 
5 , 200 tons. The iron used in plating her 
sides ranges in thickness from ii-i6ths 
to I inch in diameter, and five million 
pounds of iron were used in the hull. 
As the vessel stands on the stocks at 
present the estimated weight is seven 
millions of pounds. When loaded to 
the full carrying capacity there will be 
about 1 7 feet of clear above the water- 
line. She will be supplied with two 
pair of high pressure, compound en- 
gines ; high pressure cylinders, 51 
inches in diameter ; low pressure cylin- 
ders, 88 inches diameter; stroke of 
pistons, 54 inches ; horse-power, 4,500. 
There are two bilge-pumps and one in- 



HISTORY OP^ CHESTER. 



505 



dependent circulating pump to each 
pair of engines. 

The screw will be 20 feet 3 inches 
in diameter, and 30 feet mean pitch, 
with 5 4 average revolutions per minute, 
and a maximum of 60 revolutions in 
the same time. The propeller-wheel 
of Hirsch's patent, with four blades, 
diameter 20 feet 3 inches ; mean pitch 
of blades, 30 feet. The boilers, ten in 
number, each 10 feet 6 inches long, 
and will be 13 feet in diameter ; mean 
pressure 60 pounds to the square inch. 
Three furnaces will be provided to each 
boiler, and these will consume between 
50 and 60 tons of coal per day of 24 
hours. The estimated speed of the ship 
is 153^ knots per hour, or 17 statute 
miles. 

The vessel has four decks, with 
hatches to each. The first or lower 
deck will be for the storage of gene- 
ral freight and the coal bunkers, the 
second deck for freight, and the aft 
end for carrying immigrating Chinese. 
The third deck is the most important. 
In the forward part are the quarters 
for steerage passengers. In cosy state 
rooms, on each side, are arranged 
bunks painted neatly, and these will 
receive the addition of bedding of a 
good quality. Accommodations will 
be provided here for about 250 per- 
sons as second-class passengers, and 
1,000 third-class. Leading from this 
portion of the vessel towards the sa- 
loon, on the port-side, are the officers' 
quarters, pantry, dispensary and bath- 
rooms, and on the starboard side, 
the purser's room, fitted up with wal- 
nut desks, bunks and sofas. There 
are also more quarters for officers, 
and w^ater-closets. Amidships is the 
kitchen, with a skylight ventilation 
and light. This apartment is fitted up 
with the most approved cooking ap- 



paratus, and will be lined with sheet 
iron. Still further on, on either side 
of a large entry, are the quarters de- 
signed for the male passengers, and 
are fitted up handsomely. The doors 
and sides of the walls are built of oak, 
with satin wood. French walnut, 
ebony, and bird's eye maple carvings 
and mouldings, with ventilators of 
walnut in the upper portions. At 
the end of this passage-way is the grand 
dining saloon, 34 by 47 feet, with four 
tables running the entire length, and 
capable of accommodating 200 per- 
sons at once. Immediately in the 
rear of this, and with a passage-way 
about eight feet in width separating 
them, are the ladies' cjuarters, fitted 
up in exquisite style, with bath rooms 
attached. This portion of the vessel 
will be upholstered in the finest man- 
ner with plush velvet, and the floors 
covered with silk velvet carpets, and 
the passage-ways with oil-cloths. The 
cabins will be fitted up to accommo- 
date about 200 persons, thus making 
her capacity for passengers of all classes 
about 2,000. 

The aft steering apparatus can be 
operated by either hand or steam pow- 
er. There are three hatches leading 
to the hold upon this deck. There 
will be placed in her four masts, three 
iron and one wooden. The iron masts 
will be used as ventilators, and will 
have patent tops. Amidship is a ladies 
sitting-room, and further on a smoking- 
room, designed for the use of gentle- 
men. Forward is the pilot-house, 
and an apparatus for steering in calm 
weather. Adjoining this is the Cap- 
tain's room, and immediately in the 
rear the first and second officers' quar- 
ters. The windlass for raising the 
anchor is so arranged that it can be 
operated either by steam power, from 



5()G 



I STORY OF CHESTER. 



a small engine untlerneath, or by hand | 
power. The anchors weigh fifty-six 1 
hundred weight each, and are attached 
to 27 fathoms of 2)^ inch chain. 

She will carry 33,000 square feet of 
canvas, and her masts will be 138 feet 
in length. There will be two smoke- 
stacks painted black, 90 feet long, and 
8 feet in diameter. Distilling appa- 
ratus for converting the sea water 
into a fit condition for use will be pro- 
vided, and to each engine will be a 
surface condenser, and there will be 
tanks erected for keeping the distilled 
water, capable of storing 25,000 gal- 
lons at a time. 

It was stated by Senator Cameron, 
at the launch of the City of Peking, 
that the first iron steamboat was built 
in Pittsburg many years ago. This is 
a mistake. The first vessel of this 
kind was built in the town of York, 
Pa. I cannot recall the precise year, 
but it is stated that it was taken from 
that town to the Susquehanna on 
wheels. This may sound strangely 
but is nevertheless true. It was built 
by a very ingenious Quaker named 
Phineas Davis, and for many years after 
it was launched was used as a ferry and 
tow boat at some point on the river 
between Columbia and its mouth. 

The following interesting sketch of 
the family and descendants of an old- 
time honored resident of Chester, has 
been furnished me from a reliable 
source. To it 1 have added my re- 
collections. 

John J. Thurlow was born Feb. i, 
1795, '"^ the County of Essex, Eng- 
land. He married Mary, the oldest 
(laughter of Richard and Mary Shep- 
herdson, of East Riding, in Yorkshire, 
where she was born, A. D. 1 796. They 
emigrated to America in the winter 
of 1818-19, and settled at Newport, 



Delaware; antl tluring the latter part 
of 1819, Mr. Thurlow rented the Stage 
House there and kept it for two years, 
when, at the solicitation of Major An- 
derson, he moved to Chester, some- 
time in 1 82 1, to take charge of the 
hotel then owned by the Major, and 
formerly kept by him. While there 
he prepared and furnished the supper 
given to General Lafayette, in the old 
Court House, on his visit to Chester. 
After keeping the "Old Engle Hotel," 
near Chester bridge, known as the 
"National," Maurice W. Deshong 
succeeded him as the landlord. Major 
Price was Deshong' s successor. After 
Mr. Thurlow left the "National," he 
retired to his farm below Chester, 
where he built a commodious house, 
which he named "Sporting Hall," 
a well-known place in its day, 

" Whose roof once rang with harmless mirth, 
Where every passing stranger was a guest, 
And every guest a friend." 

The scene of much gayety and revelry 
indulged in there by the young and 
the old folks of the county ; for there 
was held every year the " Harvest 
Home," and on the barn floor the 
beaus and belles, for miles around, 
gathered and tripped on the light fan- 
tastic toe. In summer, the Hall was 
filled with city boarders from Phila- 
delphia, and evening dances and par- 
ties of pleasure were alwa3's in order. 
Mrs. Mary Thurlow died Atig, i, 1861, 
regretted by all who knew her. I re- 
call with pleasure her handsome, beam- 
ing face, as she greeted her friends, 
and her kind and cordial manners, 
that made her house feel like home. 
Some years after her death, June 15, 
1867, Mr. Thurlow married Rachel, 
daughter of Captain William Krewton, 
of Philadelphia, Avho was lost at sea, 
with his vessel and all the rrew. The 



HISTORY OF CHESTEK 



507 



old mansion, "Sporting Hall," was 
recently torn down, being in the way 
of the extension of Third Street of the 
City of Chester. 

John J. and Mary Thurlow had two 
children — a son and daughter. The 
latter, Emmeline, born at Chester, 
April 12, 1823, married first. May 
24, 1844, John A. McMullin, a mer- 
chant of Philadelphia. He accom- 
panied General Walker in his expedi- 
tion to Nicarauga, about 1854, and 
died there. They had issue\- Thurlow 
and Mary W. The daughter is married 
to Ex-Senator Milton S. Latham, of 
California, and the son, Thurlow Mc- 
Mullin, is in business in the " Golden 
Stated After the death of her first 
husband, Emmeline married again, 
Dec. 22, 1S59, George O. McMullin, 
of California, a first cousin of her 
former husband, by whom she had 
two children, Georgie Hammond, and 
Emmadonna. She was a very beauti- 
ful woman, a brunette, with a sweet, 
amiable disposition and fascinating 
manners. Her fate was a sad one ; 
she and her two young children were 
lost in the Pacific Ocean. The steamer 
Golden Gate, on which they were 
passengers, returning to her father's 
home, near Chester, took fire at sea 
and was beached July 27, 1861, upon 
the coast of Mexico, about 15 miles 
from Manzan ilia, and they were drown- 
ed in the attempt to reach shore. 

Thomas T. Thurlow, son of John J. 
and Mary, was born in Delaware, Dec. 
30, 1819, before his parents removed 
to Chester. He married June 20, 1 844, 
Susan M., daughter of John Serrill, of 
Darby, and a grand-daughter of the 
late well known old sea captain, James 
Serrill, who was for years master of 
the good old ship Tuscarora, one of 
Cope's line of packet ships to Eng- 

65 



land. Thomas T. Thurlow early took 
a fancy to military life, and was a cap- 
tain of militia in Col. John K. Zeilin's 
regiment. After his removal to Dela- 
ware, he was appointed by Governor 
Cannon of that State, Major of the 
6th Delaware Volunteers, and served 
with the Union Army until the regi- 
ment was mustered out of service in 
1864, when he was appointed Deputy 
Provost Marshal of the State of Dela- 
ware, which position he held until the 
termination of the Rebellion. He 
then removed to Washington City, D. 

C, and was appointed a clerk in the 
U. S. Hydrographic office. Bureau of 
Navigation, Navy Department. He 
has issue five children, viz. : Mary S., 
John J. and Thomas E., dead and 
buried in Chester Rural Cemetery ; 
Fannie S., wife of Augustus S. Lane, 
of Wilmington, Delaware, and Ella 
Beale, who married. Mar. 21, 1877, 
Joseph C. Addison, of Washington, 

D. C. Soon after his removal to Del- 
aware, Major Thurlow became an offi- 
cer of the First City Troop of Dela- 
ware. In 1845, upon the breaking out 
of the Mexican War, the whole Troop, 
numbering 70 men, tendered their 
services, with their horses and equip- 
ments, to the Government. 

I have before me a card for a " Har- 
vest Honied which says, "Admit the 
Bearer to Sporting Hall, near Chester, 
on Saturday, Oct. 2, 1852," and among 
a long list of " Managers," including 
gentlemen from New York, Philadel- 
phia, &c. , I find the names of the fol- 
lowing citizens of Delaware County : 



Hon. Geo. G. Leiper, 
Major Levi Reynolds, 
John C. Leiper, 
Samjiel A. Crozer, 
Wm. Truxton, U. S.N., 
Wm. P. Beatty, 
Daniel Lammot, Jr., 
John I. Thurlow. 



Joseph R. Morris, 
John L. Passmore, 
Mark Willcox, 
James G. Shaw, 
William Lincoln, 
William McCall, 
Y. S. Walter, 
Mark Warne. 



508 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



The al)ovc Harvest Home, was the 
last of six annual festivals held at Sport- 
inu Hall. 

The name of Truxton is so well 
known in Chester, that the following 
short sketch of the family will not be 
out of |)lac e. The Truxton's are re- 
lated to the lieale's. Capt. William 
T. I'ruxton, mentioned as one of 
the Managers at " Thurlow Harvest 
Home," entered the U. S. Navy, Feb. 
9, 1 841, and has served with distinc- 
tion ever since. He was lately tried 
by a Court Martial for suffering his 
ship, the U. S. steam-frigate i?r<?^/('/)'«, 
to run ashore off Key West, Sept. 22, 
1874, and honorably acquitted: 

" The evidence established the fact, 
that Captain Truxton was a most vigi- 
lant officer j that his uniform practice 
was personally to superintend the navi- 
gation of the ship, even while a pilot 
was on board ; that on the night in 
question he never left the deck or re- 
laxed his energies for a moment ; that 
the accident was due to a miscalcula- 
tion made by one or more of the pilots 
in the fleet, and that he displayed ad- 
mirable aplomb and other high quali- 
ties when the ship grounded." 

The mention of the court-martial of 
Captain Truxton, revives memories of 
names not forgotten, but long covered 
with the dust of the past. Captain 
Truxton is a survivor of the unfortu- 
nate Strain's Darien Expedition, and is 
a grand-son of old Commodore Trux- 
ton, the real father of the American 
Navy. One of our wars, that with 
France, was, in its day, known as 
''Truxton's War." Com. Truxton 
was Lieutenant of the Congress — the 
first armed vessel fitted out by the 
Colonies. In 1777, he commanded 
the Imicpendence in some severe fights. 
He then owned and commanded the 



Mars, of twenty guns, fighting her 
along the shores of the English Chan- 
nel. Afterwards he commanded the 
St. Javies, taking in her our Consul- 
General, Mr. Barclay, to France, and 
whipping on the way a British ship of 
twice his force. At the close of the 
Revolution, Truxton was first Captain 
in our Navy appointed by Washington. 
He then superintended the building of 
and commanded the Constellation, of 
thirty-eight guns, in which he cap- 
tured the French frigate La Vengeance, 
of fifty-four guns. For this achieve- 
ment the American Congress voted 
him thanks and a gold medal, and 
Lloyd's underwriters presented him 
with a service of silver, valued at six 
hundred guineas. In this action. Com- 
modore David Porter, the father of the 
present Admiral Porter, was one of 
Truxton's midshipmen, and Commo- 
dore Rodgers, the elder, was a Lieu- 
tenant. In 1799, Commodore Stephen 
Decatur was Truxton's First Lieuten- 
ant on the United States brig Noifolk. 
On the St. James, Truxton's Third 
Lieutenant was William Jones, after- 
wards Secretary of the Navy. The 
'^ Life of Decatur,'' published 1821, 
says: "When Truxton maintained 
a contest with a line-of-battle ship 
through a long night's battle and com- 
pelled her to seek safety in flight, her 
commander, not then knowing his an- 
tagonist, declared he must have been 
American, for no other people on 
earth could load so rapidly, fire so ac- 
curately, and fight so desperately." 
" During the whole Revolutionary 
war, Truxton used every means in his 
power to harass the enemy, constantly 
evincing the most undaunted courage 
and consummate skill, and likewise 
twice distinguishing himself on land." 
When Col. Aaron Burr killed Alex- 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



509 



ander Hamilton he appealed to Trux- 
ton for shelter and assistance, which 
Truxton gave, though no friend of 
Burr's. 

Commodore Truxton met with re- 
verses at the end of his career, retiring 
from the service in consequence of a 
bitter personal quarrel with the Sec- 
retary of the Navy. He died in Phila- 
delphia, in 1822, at the age of sixty- 
seven, after having been High Sheriff 
of that city and county, a much higher 
office in those days than now. The 
mother of the late Rev. M. R. Talbot, 
late Rector of St. Paul's Church, 
Chester, was a Miss Truxton, a daugh- 
ter of the old Commodore, and the 
mother of Gen. Edward Forbes Beale, 
now U. S. Minister to Austria, was 
her sister. 

About two and a half miles east of 
Chester, on the new line of the Phila- 
delphia, Wilmington and Baltimore 
Railroad, is situated that recent and 
splendid improvement called Ridley 
Park, projected in 1870, under the su- 
pervision of Robert Morris Copeland, 
(a native of Roxbury, Mass., now de- 
ceased, 1874,) as a place of summer 
residence for Philadelphians. It was 
incorporated under the name of the 
"Ridley Park Association," by Act of 
Assembly of May 26, 1870, and is 
beautifully laid out into streets and 
avenues, with little Crum Creek, newly 
named Crum Lynne, running through 
it. It is to be regretted that in desig- 
nating the avenues, &c., the names of 
old resident families of the vicinity, 
have not been more generally used, 
•such as Painter, Stille, Davis, Hill, 
Home, Morton, Henderson, Crosby, 
Erskine, Worrall, Harper, Blythe, 
Attmore, Carr, Tyrrell, Leiper, Mad- 
dock, &c., names more appropriate to 
the locality than Water Street, Swarth- 



more Avenue, &c. The latter by all 
means should have been called Pain- 
ter's Avenue. 

A handsome hotel has been erected 
at the 1 2th mile-stone from Philadel- 
phia, "on the old Queen's Road to 
Chester." Formerly there was a pri- 
vate graveyard at the intersection of 
this road at that point, with Swarth- 
more Avenue. The name of the fam- 
ily whose private burial place it once 
was, and whose names were engraven 
on the memorial stones that stood there 
in my boyhood, was Painter; they were 
wealthy people, who owned the pro- 
perty that is now Ridley Park. The 
little "God's Acre," was surrounded 
then by a high, thick-set thorn hedge; 
I remember peeping through the hedge 
and reading the names of several little 
ones buried there, as I went to and 
returned from Ridley school. At the 
northeast corner of the lot, stood the 
12th mile stone, and near by to the 
west, stood '-Home's Tavern," for- 
merly the private residence of the 
Painter's. Thomas Horne turned the 
old Painter mansion into a tavern, and 
kept it as a public house, until the 
stage-coaches ceased to run on the old 
Queen's road. The situation of the 
Park is generally high, and commands a 
splendid view of the Delaware for many 
miles; no more beautiful site could 
have been chosen for a summer resort. 

During 1873, ^ handsome Baptist 
church was erected at Ridley Park, 
just north of the railroad depot at that 
place. J. Ward & Co., generously 
contributed the stone to build it from 
their quarries on Crum Creek. The 
church was dedicated and opened for 
Divine worship, on May 7, 1874, and 
a handsome collection taken up, which 
freed the congregation from all debt. 
The Rev. John R. Downer, is the 



510 



IllSTOUV OF CHESTER. 



Pastor. There is also a Presbyterian 
church at Ridley Park, of which the 
Rev. Dr. Grier, editor of the F/rs/>y- 
terian, is the Pastor. 

Just one mile so^ithwest of the above 
church, near the 13th mile stone from 
Philadelphia, on the south side of the 
old Queen's road, in the ancient town 
of Ridley, now called Leiperville, 
stands an old, unused, dilapidated 
structure, known as the " Plummer 
Meeting House. ' ' It was erected prin- 
cipally through the exertions and with 
funds supplied by John S. Morton, of 
Springfield. Joseph Weaver, the elder, 
Joseph Tribbets, Jonathan Vaughan, 
William Weaver, Abraham Ward, Sam- 
uel Barton, (all deceased,) and others, 
were interested with Mr. Morton in 
building the meeting house. They 
called themselves "The Free Chris- 
tians." The church was erected for 
the elder Frederick Plummer, the min- 
ister of a free church in Philadelphia, 
and for a time he was a great favorite 
with his congregation. His followers 
were called generally " Plummerites." 
He Avas an Englishman, I believe, and 
in appearance was a heavy built, hand- 
some, red-faced man, with light hair, 
easy and winning manners. Franklin 
Parsons is one of the present trustees 
of the property. 

The new Ridley Public School House 
stands on the next lot but one, west of 
the old Plummer Meeting House, and 
opposite the properties of William W. 
Maddock and Miles M. Stille.* The 
latter is the descendant of an old Swed- 
ish family, who were among the earli- 
estsettlersin this vicinity. Olof Stille, 
whose passport or certificate of charac- 
ter bears date Dec. 2, 1634, came from 

* DiEO, at the residence of her son, Miles 
Stille, at Leiperville, Nov. i, 1866, Martraret 
Stille. .T'lJ rihoiit 9^ years. 



the lordshi]) of Penningby and Nyanes, 
in the Duchy of Lodermania, about 
30 miles south of Stockholm, in Swe- 
den ; he resided on and owned the 
land between Ridley and Crum Creeks. 
On Lwdsfrom's MS. Map, this tract 
is designated as '' Stilleu's Land, le 
pays dc Stillen,'' and Ridley Creek is 
called, '' Oele Stillen' s Kilir The 
Indians called it Techorassi or Tegui- 
rasi. Olof Stille was one of the prin- 
cipal men in the Swedish Colony, 
having been deputed by Gov. Printz, 
as the bearer of the official ])rotest 
made by the Swedes to the Dutch 
Governor, against the encroachments 
of the West India Company on the 
rights of the Swedish Crown on the 
Delaware. In 1658, after the Dutch 
took possession of the country, he was 
one of the four commissioners or ma- 
gistrates appointed to administer jus- 
tice among the inhabitants, and thus 
became a Judge of the first Court of 
which history gives us any informa- 
tion, held among the Europeans on 
the banks of the Delaware. He was 
also employed in various negotiations 
with the neighboring colonists and 
with the Indians, by whom he was 
styled, " The man with the black 
beard." He died about the year 
1666. His son, John Stille, was born 
near Tinicum, in the year 1646, and 
died April 24, 1722, aged about 76 
years, and was buried in the grave- 
yard of the Swedes' Church at Wica- 
coa, where his tombstone still remains. 
He was one of the original trustees of 
that church, and the pastor, in record- 
ing his death, adds: "He lived a 
goodly life in this world." 'Sit& Notes 
to Upla7id Recoi'd. 

Among the queer characters of Ches- 
ter, when I was a school-boy, was one 
whose i)eculiaritics will liear notice ; 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



.11 



and as he had no relatives that I am 
aware of, nobody's feelings will be 
hurt by the recital of his sayings and 
doings. "Tom White," was a kind 
of house servant of the Hon. Edward 
Darlington, when he resided in Third 
Streetj Chester. My recollection of 
him is, that he was half-witted and 
fond of " fire water;" on one occasion 
as some school girls were buying horse- 
ginger-bread in a candy store, under 
David Abbott's saddlery shop, opposite 
Mr. Darlington's, Tom was to be seen 
gazing intently at the little sweet- 
toothed Misses; at last, slapping his 
leg with his open hand, he said, "Oh 
good Lord ! there's six cents gone slap- 
dab for ginger-bread, and they would 
have bought a quart of whiskey." Tom 
was fond of quoting scripture ; one 
day being busy in the stable-loft he 
slipped and fell through the hay-well, 
and as he came down, he was heard to 
cry aloud, " Lo, here I come," and 
when he heard of a death, he always 
said, " We grow up like a hollyhock, 
and are cut down like a rose." The 
boys used to tease him until he got 
frantic with rage. 

On All Hallow-E'en, we boys used 
to have great fun ; I remember on one 
such evening we hooked a large num- 
ber of pumpkins, on purpose to annoy 
"old Scott," who kept a Beer House 
opposite Mr. Darlington's, in the cel- 
lar of a three-story old-fashioned brick, 
afterwards burned down. During the 
evening we threw down a large pump- 
kin, which, bursting open his saloon 
door, partly glass with a red curtain 
before the lights, rolled into the mid- 
dle of the cellar ; but to our disgust, 
old Scotty rushed to the door and sung 
out, "more pumpkins! boys, more 
pumpkins." He saw visions of cheap 
pumpkin pies. 



It has been only within the last ten 
years that wandering companies of 
Gypsies have made their appearance 
in the United States, travelling around 
the country with their families in large 
covered wagons, constituting a small 
house on wheels. Their ostensible 
business is trading in horses, by the 
men, and fortune-telling by the wo- 
men. All I have seen were stout and 
and hearty to be sure; but the women 
were not handsome or the men very 
clean. They remind us Americans of 
the Indians. Several families have 
encamped now for the last five or six 
years, on the " Sand Island," at Beth- 
lehem, Pa., and from the Delaware 
County Advocate, of Chester, Pa., 
March 13, 1875, ^ (^opy the following 
item: '■^Rather Cool. — A company 
of Gypsies have been spending the 
past winter .in a sail-cloth tent near by 
Morton Station. During the coldest 
of the cold term, a little snow-bird, 
after the fashion of a brown -faced 
gypsy baby, came, and there remains, 
happy as if its home were a palace." 

My old friend John F. Gilpin, says 
that about 181 3, there stood on the 
present site of the Arch Street Thea- 
tre, in Philadelphia, an old fashioned 
Tavern, with a large swinging sign, 
on which was represented a Hunting 
Scene, that is. Hounds chasing a Deer, 
with Huntsmen on horseback; beneath 
the picture was printed 

" Our Hounds are good and Horses too, 
The Buck is near run down. 
Call off the hounds and let him blow, 
While we regale with Brown." 

Twenty-five or thirty years ago, 
nearly every gentleman and farmer 
in Delaware and Chester Counties, 
had two or three useless fox-hounds 
running at large about his place. 
They were a great nuisance ; for on 



612 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



moonlight nights, they would gather 
in packs and chase rabbits or sheep 
all night, in full cry, making a fearful 
noise. There was very little fox-hunt- 
ing in those days, it was a thing of the 
past; lately, the sport seems to have 
been revived, and the cry of Tally 
ho! is again to be heard in Delaware 
County. 

A representative of the i^e;^;//;/^ Tel- 
egraph, who was present at the fox- 
hunt, near Media, on Wednesday, 
March 21, 1877, furnished that paper 
the following full and detailed report 
of the occurrence, which I copy, be- 
lieving it will be of interest to many 
readers who have never followed the 
hounds in a wild scamper across the 
country. The writer says : 

"Wishing to get an insight into the 
manner of conducting a hunt, our re- 
I)orter took a trip to Delaware County 
to the 'meet' of the 'Germantown,' 
and the 'Rose Tree Clubs,' at the 
stables of Mr. Howard Lewis, in 
Springfield township, Delaware Coun- 
ty, about three miles east of Media. 
The road from the latter place winds 
through a rolling and picturesque 
country. At times the road winds 
along the hill-sides, while scores of 
feet below we can see the low flats 
and the creek flowing. The whole 
face of the country seems as if it were 
formed by a series of upheavals, the 
rock outcropping here and there on 
the hillsides, and some of the latter 
well covered with thickets and scrub 
growth and brush. The place where 
the ' meet ' was held, was one of the 
most commanding of all the country, 
and an observer could see for several 
miles about, except at one point, where 
a ridge of almost equal height, and 
covered from base to summit with 
small growth intervened. There were 



assembled about 35 hunters who intend- 
ed to take part in the chase, including 
two ladies, Mrs. S. W , from Ger- 
mantown, and Miss Morris, of the Rose 
Tree Club. Even to one who took no 
pleasure in the hunt, it was a pleasant 
sight to see the horses grouped around, 
some of them very handsome animals, 
whose points as good runners and 
jumpers were fully discussed by the 
several knots of hunting men and cri- 
tics who thronged the well-filled stable, 
comparing notes between the Rose 
Tree Club and their guests. ' Have 
you seen the kennel and the fox ?' in- 
quires the proprietor. ' Well, come 
along, I'll show you some beauties. 
There isn't many of them, only two 
and a half dozen, as the English would 
say, for they can' t say twenty-five to save 
'em.' Their kennel was a moderate- 
size barn, and as the door was shoved 
along to permit a view, there was a 
rush of many feet, and such a concert 
of yells as the master struck at them 
and forced them back, so eager were 
they for the field. Their eagerness 
illustrates the force of the hunter's 
answer to the sentimental old lady 
who was taking him to task for in- 
dulging in the cruel amusement of fox- 
hunting. He listened patiently, and 
then said, ' Ah ! madam, ye canna 
deny that the hunters like it; I'm sure 
the horses like it, and I'm certain the 
dogs enjoy it, and there's no one knows 
that the fox don' t like it. ' There were 
25 of these hounds, nearly all of them 
thoroughbreds, and some valued at 
^30 to $50 each. The fox was then 
inspected. He was kept in a box, the 
top of which had slats nailed on it to 
prevent his escape. He was caught in 
Germantown and sent to the ' Rose 
Tree," a couple of months ago, and he 
was thought to be rather tame, so much 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



513 



so that one of the ladies incautiously 
put her finger inside and he did not 
offer to bite it. 

At about lo^ o'clock in the morn- 
ing, the last straggler had come into 
the 'meet,' and a few minutes before 
II o'clock, the fox was taken out in 
his box and carried to a good distance, 
and to such a position that none of 
the company could tell where it was 
taken to. 

The appearance of the riders dressed 
in their hunting costume, is exceeding- 
ly suggestive. Some wore short jack- 
ets, ordinary trowsers tucked into their 
riding-boots, and carrying short riding- 
sticks with a loop at the end, and all 
kinds of hats from the silk to the little 
jockey skull-cap. One old hunter 
tucked up the tails of his coat and 
made a jacket of it, another came out 
in a white flannel jacket, and still 
another wore a costume somewhat like 
a London old clo' man, one short 
overcoat with another shorter one over 
it, and white corduroy trowsers were 
plenty. One of the ladies, Miss Mor- 
ris, was dressed in a blue water-proof 
riding habit, rather long, and the other, 

Mrs. W , in a short, well-fitting one 

of black, and both wore regular jockey 
caps. 

' Give him a start of fifteen minutes !' 
says the master of the hunt. It was an 
impatient time, and was spent in talk- 
ing probabilities, ' horse' and looking 
after the straps and saddles. ' Time's 
up ! mount ! mount !' and in less than 
a minute all were in the saddle, the 
pack of hounds slipped, and dashing 
up the road with tails erect and nose 
in air, and such a chorus of hoarse 
bavinii- .nnd sharn vplnc i-Viat m'i'-<' Im/e 

■■d 



-ail) aacl .sv..|'>ai-;-Lci 



■ie 
:oi!ig one 



direction and some another, depend- 
ing on judgment as to the direction 
to be taken. "The wind's from the 
south, and it will be a .short hunt,' 
says a looker-on, ' for then it's always 
so. ' The hounds could be heard for 
a few minutes, and then the sound was 
lost behind the hills. The two la- 
dies rode splendidly and followed the 
hounds, taking fences, ditches and 
every-thing with the nerve of veterans. 
From the browof the hill where the spec- 
tators stood the fox was easily seen from 
the time it was let out of the trap until 
the first quarter of a mile had been run. 
As the hounds struck this point there 
was a temporary hush, then a deep 
chorus and they rushed in a solid body 
along the trail. In less than half a 
minute the horsemen and the two 
ladies could be seen following over 
the rough rocky ground covered with 
underbrush and some dashing reck- 
lessly through the bushes and across 
the creek, that flowed through the 
low bottom land, and then the whole 
passed from view over the brow of 
the hill. What followed is told by 
the hunters on their return, which was 
about noon, the hunt having lasted 
three-quarters of an hour. ' It was a 
short and sharp one,' said the Secre- 
tary of the Rose Tree Club, as he came 
in. The first indication was the stray- 
ing in of a solitary hunter with horse 
and self well splashed, then a limping 
hound, and then the hounds and the 
hunters themselves. The latter were 
well splashed from toe to hat, and 
seemed to pride themselves upon the 
amount of real estate in a semi-liquid 
state that each could carry. The la- 
dies came in bearir"^«-i^° "tj^r-i '»"'-'-" — 
of 'rarn .'. -' -< . 
there was a perfei I 
The fox had leti them . 



514 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



six miles around and about, and when 
run down by the hounds the first one 
in at the death was Mr. Ed. Wath, 
Mr. Wm. Leiper, Mr. George Lewis, 
Miss Morris, and within half a minute 

Mrs. W . As the young lady was in 

almost the first, it was decided to give 
her the brush, or tail, of the fox, that 
being the greatest trophy of the hunt. 
Each of the ladies had a foot, and the 
gory head was secured by Mr. Howard 
T>ewis, and came in hanging from his 
saddle. It was a very handsome head, 
and the face unmutilated, with the 
clear, beautiful eyes as bright as if it 
were alive. It will be stuffed and 
adorn the hunter's box, a room fitted 
up in the stable, adorned with hunting 
pictures, foxes' heads, stuffed brashes, 
horns of deer, and similar trophies, 
and in which they have the re-union 
after the hunt to satisfy their keen ap- 
petites, and tell the story of the day, 
and other days. The club consists of 
60 members, thirty of w^hom are active. 
All of them own their own mounts, 
and many of the horses have consider- 
able celebrity as hard goers and fine 
jumpers. On this occasion, there Avere 
aboutadozen of the GermantownClub 
present, and around the board the 
assembled hunters sang ' Auld Lang 
Syne,' and told some remarkable sto- 
ries of foxes who had been run hard, 
but like the asymptote of a parabola, 
were continually approached but ne- 
ver reached. There was one fellow 
who jumped right over a fence on to 
a hound's back, gave it a vicious snap, 
then leaped right between two large 
pa(ks of hounds, looked at them one in- 
stant, and was aw^ay like a flash of red 
lightning, followed bv the whole field. 



5 o'clock the meeting broke ujj, and 
the visitors came riding into town 
spattered with mud as they were. 
There is no question that, followed 
in the manner it is, fox-hunting is 
most excellent exercise, and calculated 
to make splendid riders. As to its 
safety, there is very seldom an acci- 
dent. There are numbers of ladies 
who enter into it with zest, as many 
as half a dozen riding in a single hunt. 
This hunt will be about the last of the 
season. In a week or two the ground 
will be broken for the spring crops, 
and the horses will be patiently at 
work, dreaming, ])erhaps, of the next 
season." 

The following is a continuation of 
Mr. Broomall's sketch of the Public 
Schools of Chester. See pp. 346, 347, 
taken from the Chester Evening News, 
of March 29, 1877. 

"In the year ending June, 1872, 
the amount of money raised by the 
School Board, was $21,322.67. The 
expenses, were ^21,700.02. The mem- 
bers of the Board at the beginning of 
the school year of 1872, were Caleb 
Emlen, Pi-esident ; H. L. Donaldson, 
Treasurer ; Dr. E. Harvey, Simeon 
Cotton, William B. Broomall, J. W. 
Kenworthy, John Fountain, S. H. 
Seeds; Thomas Appleby, Secretary. 
The number of teachers employed was 
24 besides the superintendent. In 
July, Miss Emma Hahn, was unani- 
mously elected to the position of As- 
sistant in the High School. In De- 
cember, Wm. B. Broom.all and Joseph 
Kenworthy withdrew. Dr. F. R. Gra- 
ham and Jonathan Grant, were elected 
to fill the vacancies. 

In June, 1873. Dr. Wm. B. I'lrich 



ISTORY OF CHESTER. 



515 



Emlen was elected President ; Thos. 
Appleby, Secretary, and John Foun- 
tain, Treasurer. The revenue this 
year, -was ^ 2 2 , 45 5 . 5 5 . The expenses, 
were 122,170.65. Water was intro- 
duced into the school buildings. In 
July another room was added to the 
Academy building on Second Street. 
In September, the first resolution look- 
ing to the organization of a night 
school in South Ward was passed. 
At a special meeting, held Sept. i6th, 
the first proposal was made to book 
dealers to furnish supplies for the 
schools. Jan. 7, 1874, a night school 
was opened in the Mechanics' Read- 
ing Room, with Miss Susan Fenton in 
charge and Alfred Taylor, assistant. 
May 6, 1874, President Emlen resign- 
ed as a member of the Board. Charles 
Roberts was elected to fill the vacancy. 
Dr. Ulrich was elected President. 

On June 3, 1874, the following new 
members presented their credentials; 
Mrs. S. M. Springer and W. J. Har- 
vey. John Fountain was re-elected. 
W, J. Harvey was elected President, 
S. H. Seeds, Secretary, and John 
Fountain, Treastirer. At this time the 
system of appointing Standing Com- 
mittees was inaugurated. The revenues 
this year, were ^22,668.08. The ex- 
penses, $21,668.81. 

July 3, 1874, A. Robinettewas elect- 
ed Principal of the High School, de- 
feating A. A. Meader, who had been 
Principal since the establishment of 
the school. [Mr. Meader, however, 
was not ousted from his position as 
Superintendent.] The number of 
teachers this year was 31, including 
the Superintendent. 

Jan. I, 1875, ^^ School Board is- 
sued bonds for $4,500, for the purpose 
of assisting in paying for the altera- 
tions of the Eleventh St. school house, 



made in 1875. i'he money raised this 
year, was $40,221.20. Expenditures, 
$39,916.87. On June 4, 1875, the 
permanent indebtedness was $27,600. 
June 9th, W. H. Dickinson, Charles 
Roberts, S. H. Seeds and Jonathan 
Grant, presented their credentials as 
members of the School Board, all of 
the above being re-elected except Mr. 
Dickinson. The officers of the Board 
remained the same as the previous year. 
The school tax for the ensuing year was 
laid at 5 mills, 3.^ for school purposes 
and i^ for building. The teachers 
employed this year 38. July 16, 1875, 
the contract for the erection of a 
new school building on Welsh Street, 
below Fifth, was awarded to J. W. 
Barnes & Co., at $6,148. Sept. 17th, 
A. Robinette was elected Superinten- 
dent of schools. The salary was fixed 
at $500 per annum. At a meeting of 
the Board, held Oct. i, 1875, the fol- 
lowing motion was made by Dr. Har- 
vey: Resolved, That the Bible shall 
not be read in the Public Schools. 

The question was taken up at a spe- 
cial meeting, Oct. 22nd. The yeas 
were. Dr. Harvey. Nays, Dickinson, 
Grant, Fountain, Roberts, Seeds and 
Ulrich. S. M. Springer and W. J. 
Harvey were absent. Gas was intro- 
duced in the Middle Ward school 
building, for the use of night schools, 
Dec. 3, 1875. At that time there was 
an attendance of 135 scholars in this 
school. In Jan., 1876, a night school 
for colored children was opened in 
South Ward. The average attend- 
ance was 35, and there were 50 names 
on the roll. 

Feb. 4, 1876. Industrial drawingwas 
introduced as a branch of study in the 
Public Schools, and Miss Mary E. 
Bradley was employed as teacher and 
superintendent of the said branch. 



516 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



Ajiril 7. The ]5oanl voted S25 as a 
quota for educational display at the 
Centennial Exhibition. The money 
raised this year was 153,279.54, and 
the expenditures were the same. 

June 8. John C. Price succeeded Dr. 
Harvey. Dr. F. R. Graham was re- 
elected. The officers were, W. J. 
Harvey, President; Mrs. Springer, 
Secretary, and John Fountain, Trea- 
surer. The tax rate was fixed at 3 
mills on the dollar for school pur- 
poses, and for building purposes i mill. 
Alfred Taylor, Collector of School Tax. 
Dec. I. A committee was appointed 
by the School Board, to inquire into 
the discrepancy between the vote cast 
at city elections and the number of 
taxables on the list of the County Com- 
missioners. This committee reported 
that considerable error existed in the 
registered taxables, and that the school 
fund had been greatly depleted thereby. 
This report occasioned a memorial on 
the subject to Council. The Committee 
on Discrepancies in the matter of taxa- 
bles and votes, reported that the number 
of taxables as per duplicate was 1 738 ; 
number of taxables not voting, 890 ; 
number of taxables from duplicate who 
voted, 848; number of voters not on 
duplicate, 1,413; total number liable 
to tax, 3,151, showing a loss since the 
triennial assessment of 1874 to the 
School District from State appropria- 
tions and personal tax of $8,549. 

In June, 1877, H. L. Donaldson 
succeeded W. J. Harvey in the School 
Board. Wm. Hinkson succeeds Mrs. 
Springer, and W. H. Thompson will 
succeed John Fountain. The indebt- 
edness of the School Board at present, 
is $33,050. The value of 
estate owned by the Sckool 
is §93,110. The furniture. 
Total, 5j!ioo,45t. 



The following interesting Petition 
will show tliat by an ancient custom 
the office of Constable was appurte- 
nant to the land, and the different 
" places" took their turns. Thus, if 
a man owned a farm he must serve a 
year in his turn, and if he bought 
another place, would have to serve 
again when its tm-n came. 

To the Honorable Jiisliccs of the Court of 

Private Sess/o/is, hcU at Chester of the 26th 

day of March, 1764. 

The Petition of Samuel Shaw of Chester 
Township, Miller, Humbly Showeth, — That 
your Petitioner understands that he is on the 
return for the office of Constable of the said 
Township for the ensuing year : That your peti- 
tioner has foi-merly served thatotHce, and there 
are several other places that have never served ; 
and it being a custom that all the places in the 
s"! Township should serve in thejr turns before 
any should be obliged to serve again, Your 
Petitioner apprehends it will not fall to his turn 
to serve for several years yet to come ; and for 
your Honors' better information your Petitioner 
has annexed a list of some persons' names who 
are Inhabitants of the said Township and have 
never yet served, as your Petitioner stands in- 
structed. 

That your Petitioner hath lived but a few 
years in the said Township and now hath a 
very large Family, and is also involved in such 
a multiplicity of Business at present, that he 
cannot serve the said office at this time, with- 
out greatly prejudicing his own private Affairs ; 
That when your Petitioner dwelt in the County 
of Philadelphia, he was Commissionated by the 
Ciov"" as a Major & Captain of a Company, and 
being an old regular soldier, did discipline 
several other companies as well as his own, 
without any reward from the Government, 
which proved a Considerable Expense to him 
as well as a hindrance to his own private con- 
cerns. 
I Your Petitioner therefore most humbly Prays 
that your Honors will be pleased to take the 
premises into Consideration, and Excuse him 
sent from the said Office of Constable, 
ppoinl some other person to that office 
^tead. 
• I your said Petitioner shall ever pray, &c. 
Samei- Shaw. 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



517 



A List of Persons who have not 
served as Constable. 



Jacob Howell, Jr. ^ 
John Eyre, 
George Spear, 
David Jackson, 
Henry Piatt, 



Thomas Sharplcss 
Thomas Roman, 
Philip Roman, 
Jacob Ridgeway, 
Valentine Weaver 



John Salkeld, (part of a year formerly.) 

I extract from The Philadelphia 
Inquirer o{ K^xW. i6, 1873, the follow- 
ing account of a Trip to Chester : 

" People who have not seen Chester, our 
neighboring sister city in this State, for two or 
three years, would be well repaid the trouble of 
visiting that flourishing place during this spring 
or in the coming summer. The growth of 
the place has been almost marvellous during 
the past three or four years, and it is expected 
that the coming season will witness an un- 
precedented activity in building operations, 
owing to the scarcity of suitable dwellings for 
operatives in the shipyards nnd factories. A 
walk through the city will show this. In all 
directions cellars are being dug and walls built 
already, and the middle of April barely at hand. 
In the North Ward, Mr. Abram Blakely, cot- 
ton manufacturer, is putting an addition, 100 
feet long, to his mill, and Mr. James Ledward 
is adding 120 feet to his, and making other 
changes. This establishment recently suffer- 
ed serious damage from fire. The very hand- 
some i-esidence of Spencer Mcllvain, Esq., 
has been finished, and is a great improvement 
to its section of the city. Mr. Henry R. Cou- 
lomb, a Philadelphia builder, is erecting a 
block of twelve houses, on Edgmont Avenue, 
which are likely to be followed by twelve more 
later in the season. 

Besides these there are about twenty other 
dwellings contracted for in this Ward. In the 
Middle Ward, the old part of Chester, John 
.Spencer, proprietor of the Advocate, is enlarg- 
ing his flourishing printing establishment ; 
George and Morgan Baker, arc building five 
residences, and- houses built last fall are being 
completed, the old dials of the clock on the 
City Hall have been removed and new iliu^ 
minated dials are being substituted. i\ new 
luck-up for the accommodation of "tramps" 
from Wilmington and other places is talked 
of, but meets with much opposition. 

In the South Ward things are progressing, 
and people of this city, who have not been in 



Chester for several years, will find old land- 
marks gone, and the city streets extended 
nearly to Marcus Hook. New boroughs have 
been incorporated, and now, after the New 
England style, there is North Chester on one 
side and South Chester on another. West 
Chester is a suburb 18 miles distant, and East 
Chester is to be the future home of the Amer- 
ican Print Works of the Messrs. Simpson of 
this city. Several hundred acres of ground 
have been purchased by them, and stone and 
brick are being gotten together for future use. 

They have in Chester but one regularly or- 
ganized Bacchanalian revel annually, and that 
is by the ex- and in-city functionaries, under the 
guise of a municipal supper. They invite some 
jolly, good fellows from the city and from ad- 
joining towns, and gather to hurrah for Chester, 
tell stories, sing songs and make Innicombe 
speeches. 

At the last supper, which came on last Friday 
night. Mayor Forward presided at one end of 
the table, and Y. S. Walter, editor of the Dela- 
ware County Republicati, at the other. 

" The old members of Council," " The new 
members of Council," "Our schools," "Our 
railroad interests," and our everything, were 
conscientiously toasted and properly felicitated. 
Thomas V. Cooper, of the Media Auicrican, 
was the wonderful mirror of the occasion. 
He sees Chester from a point five miles distant, 
.and replied to the toast, "As others see us." 
Wm. A. Todd, editor of the Evening A^ews, 
made a model speech, chalking out a Utopian 
sphere and functions for " the Press" of Ameri- 
ca, which was very nice, but difficult of execu- 
tion. Lots of other speeches were made, and 
songs sung. 

On Sunday St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 
which had been closed, undergoing repair.s for 
ten months, was re-opened. It is now one of 
the handsomest churches inside to be found in 
the country. Great credit is due the ladies of 
the congregation, who labored assiduously and 
raised ^9000 of the ^15,000 required for the 
work. The church was crowded, the music 
was good, and the sermon was excellent. Bap- 
tisms of twelve or fifteen infants preceded, and 
communion followed the services. Rev. Hen- 
ry Brown, the Rector for the past eleven year.s, 
and the last of a long line of twenty four rectors 
of this parish, preached. In his review of the 
•hit=tory of the church he stated that it was more 
two hundred years old — that is, the con- 



518 



HISTORY OF CHESTER. 



yi'ci;alii(n. The incnil)ci>Iii|), now ahmit two 
luindrcd, at one time numbered only three. 
The old church, completed in 1702, was torn 
down in 1850, and the present one built. I'hila- 
delphians spending the summer in the vicinity 
of Chester, will find at St. Paul's quite a curi- 
osity in the shape of a tombstone cut in 1682. 

The lecture season in Chester closed last 
night with a lecture by Lieut. lie -,rv (^lay 
Cochrane, U. S. M. C, before the '. > 1. ;its' 
Union, upon "The West Coast o ^outh 
America." Hamlet, by an amateur company, 
assisted by J. B. Roberts, of this city, is'i \be 
l)roduced at Tuscarora Hall this week. " 

Oil the 4th of July, 1876, in ac' 
cordance with a Proclamation of tht 
President of the United States, re- 
commending the preparation and pre^ 
servation of Town, County and State 
Histories, Centennial meetings were 
held for that purpose throughout the" 
Union. At Chester, the Centennial 
Oration was delivered by Isaac T. 
Coates, M. D., on the National Sta- 
tistics, from 1790 to 1876, and i.-, a 
mint of useful knowledge, compiled 
with infinite pains, and has been pre- 
served in book form. William Ward, 
Esq., wrote and read a sketch of the 
History of Chester, from its earliest 
settlement. Hon. John M. Broomall, 
read before the Delaware County In- 
stitute of Science, the County History 
for the last century, which has been 
filed with the Librarian of Congress; 
and Henry Graham Ashmead, Esq., 
wrote a sketch of the History of Ches- 
ter and Delaware Counties, which is 
printed in Dr. Egle's Illustrated His- 
tory of Pennsylvania. These able, 
instructive and interesting papers, were 



all printed in the Delaware County 
Republican. 

Here ends the History of Chester 
and its vicinity. It may be said that 
tliis work is very imperfect ; I admit 
that it is, but I have done the best I 
could with the materials I had, which 
were collected more for my own per- 
sonal amusement than with the design 
oi fever publishing them, which was 
j the thought of a later day ; and I now 
I give the result of my researches to the 
! public, thinking thereby to preserve 
I many things that would be otherwise 
lost. Many pleasant and many leisure 
' hours, making up in time a space of 
'^'veral years, have been passed over 
i work, and if any one thmks such 
I. .>clf-imposed task easy, let him write 
a hisf.r)fy of New Castle, or Salem, or 
some other old town on the Delaware, 
or elsewhere, then give an opinion on 
my production. I read on an old iron 
stove plate, that had on it a picture of 
a marriage ceremony, cast in 1756, by 
John Pott, from whom the town of 
Pottsville, in this State, takes its name, 
the following inscription : 

" WAR DAR IBER NUR WIL LACHEN, 
DER MAG ES BESSER MACHEN, TATELEN 
KENEN lA SER VIL, ABER BESSER MA- 
CHEN 1ST DAS RECHTE SPIL." 

That is to say — "Whoever chooses 
to laugh over this picture, he sliall 
make a better one ; anybody can make 
fun of a thing, but let him do better, 
that is the right way ;" and thus I end 
one of the most agreeable occupations 
of my life. 



INDEX. 



Abbott, David, 245. 

Abolition of slavery, 189. 

Act against Horse-racing, 228. 

A Day in Chester, 122. 

Advertisements, old, 327. 328. 

Addresses of soldiers, 194. 202. 

Advertiser, The Chester, 226. j 

Advocate, The Chester, 226. 

Aged people, list of, 244 to 253. 

Albany beef, 423. 

Allen, Andrew, 473. 

Ammasland, 135. 136. 137. 142. 148 to 153. 

Ancient Punch Bowl and Pitcher, 200. Preface. 

Anderson, 123. 127. 128. 213. 219. 246. 261. 

267. 290. 455. 456. 
Anderson family, 244. 253 to 255. 
Andrew's neglect, 107. 
Animals, wild, 61. 
Ancient spelling, 56. 
Anecdotes, 195. 475. 
Anthony, 256. 
Appleby, 261. 
Apprentices, 74. 75. 
A perilous ride, 386. 
Arrivals, 5. 23. 25. 64. 69, 70. 
Artillerists, The Penna., 221. 222. 287. 
Archy Dick Guards, 368. 
Art, Capt. James, 103. 104. 
Armitt family, 141. 
-Armor family, 103. 104. 106. 
Armstrong, i. 6. 19. 

Armstrong's list of arrivals, 63. 64. 65. ,^ 

Arms of Broom, 284. 285. 

Crosby, 218. 

Delawarr, Preface. 

West, Preface. 
Arlemus Ward, 280. 
Asbury Chapel, 411. 
Assembly, first, 66. 67. 

Members of, 446. 

Old house of, 66. 163. _ 

.Vshmcad, 267. 268. 

family, 4401.. 444. 



[ A> :ociators, 174. 175. 
I .wood, 458. 

Vtlee, 176. 180. 252. 

A trip to Chester, 516. 

Attempt to capture Arsenal, 397 10402. 

Attorney not to plead, 461. 

Attorneys, Lists of, 470 to 477. 

Attorneys-General, 472. 473. 

Bachelors' Club, 227. 

Back street, 55. 

Baggs family, 278. 279. 

Bake-house, 90. 350. 

Baldwin family, 106. 479 to 481. Preface. 

Balls, birth night, 302. 

Bank, Delaware County, 122. 222. Preface. 

1st National, 222. 
Bankspn family, 30. 31. 32. 106. 

name, 17. 18. 103. 
Baptist churches, 414. 415. 509. 
Bartram family, 188. 189. 247 to 250. Preface 
Barnard, 128. 317^ 407. 

family record, 407 to 410. 
Bartholomew, 273. 
Barrows, 335. Preface. 
Bar of Delaware Co., 474. 475. 

Chester County, 470. 471. 476. 477. 
Bathing place, 387. 
Battle of Brandy wine, 255. 258. 

Long Island, 177. 
Beale family, 15. 213. 264. 265. Preface. 

Dr. Joseph, 15. 
Belfry of St. Paul's, 13. 123. 126. 
Bell of St. Paul's, 13. 14. 122. 126. 

towers, 123. 
Bell, Thomas S., 467. 
Bench and Bar, 460 to 478. 
Berry, 211. 

Besk, Deed to Capt., 7. 155. 
Bethlehem and the Moravians, 453. 
Bevan, Davis, 223. 267. 271. 

family, 41- 42.44- Ijl- 273- 

i;iiis..rcrcdii. 140. 



520 



INDEX. 



Kible Society, 235. 236. 237. 
Bird, 96. Prcjacc. 
Black Bear Inn, 278. 
Block-House, 4. 
Blue Anchor Tavern, 261. 
Blue-Ball Inn, 266. 
Blythe, 293. 316. 319. 
Bonsall, 243. 336. ' 

family, 317. 499. 
Bond family, 30. 34. I03. 106. 107. 4S1. 

Island, 106. 107. 
Boon family', 19. 
Boone, Daniel, 19. 
Bradford, William, 64. 

Breakwater, Delaware, 62. 221. 297 to 301. 
Brooke, II. Jones, Preface. 
Broom, 276. 

family, 281 to 285. Preface. 
Broomall, 8. 313. 346. 466. 468. 
Broomall's descr-^ ion of Chester, 313 to 316. 
Brohson, 245. 261. 
Brinton, 354. 
Bridges, 56. 57. 58. 59. 
Brown family, 145. 
Buck, Wm. J., 4. 
Buffington, 25. 26. 
Ikitler, William, 466. 467. 468. 
Ikickley family, 102. 

Burying Grounds, 55. 78. 79. 80. 155. 158. 
Burgesses, (Chief), 1S8. 221. 301. 364. 462. 
jjushall family, 102. 
Burns family, 261. 
Bustles, 164. 

Chester, Ancient, 65. 66. 489. 
Assembly 'at, 66. 67. 
Advocate, 226. 
Advertiser, 226. 
Bridges at, 57. 58. 59. 
Balls and dancing, 302. 
Burgesses, 188. 221. 301. 364. 462. 
Borough Charter, III. 201. 
Census, 303. 
City charter, 113. 
City Mayors, 301. 
Churches, 113. 122. 410 to 415. 
Courts removed from, 353. 354. 
City Council, 301. 
City safeguards, 391. 
Date of settlement, 3. 
Draft of land at, 9. 10. 
Descriptions of, 165. 302 to 310. 313 

to 316. 488 to 492. 516. 517. 
Ivu-ly scllk-r>, 7. 8. 9. 10. 259. 



Chester Evening News, 226. 

Election scenes at, 196. 
Fort at, 4. 

Fishing Club, 222, 422. 423. 
Fire Insurance Co., 365. 
First mentioned, 4. 
From 1849 to 1865, 428 to 434. 
Gas introduced, 417. 418. 
Guards, 376. 
Herald, 225. 
Health of, 244. 
Heights, 416. 417. 
Incorporated, in. 201. 
Island, 196. 
Lament, 192. 193. 
•Lodges, Masonic, 196 to 200. 
Library Company, 91. 449 to 452. 
Lyceum, 450. 
" Mills, 10. 310. 311. 438. 
Meeting of Friends, 24. 67. %t,. 163. 
Mutual Ins. Co., 366. ~ 
Municipal offices of the City, 301. 
Newspapers, 224 to 226. 
Names of, 3. 

Names of streets, 21. 22. -87. 88. 
Name changed, 63. 64. 499. 500. 
Owners of land at, 9. 
Penn's arrival at, 24. 62. 63. 
Petition of Inhabitants, 89. 90. 159. 
Pilot, 226. 

Plan or Model of, 88. 89. 90. 
Population of, 303. 
Piers, 222 to 224. 
Park Association, 478. 479. 
Prisoners of War at, 2S0. 281. 
Race Course at, 502. 503. 
Removal of Seat of Justice from, 191 

192. 193. 
Rise and progress of, 428 to 434. 
Retailers, 301. 302. 
Titles of land at, 6. 29. 
Town of, laid out, 88. "89. 90. 
Troops at, 176. 177. 188. 
Seal of County, 66. 
Schools, 346 to 350. 514 to 516. 
Streets of, 21. 22. 87. 89. 
Ship-yards, 428 to 436. 504 to 506. 
Vessels built at, 503 to 506. 
Water-works, 447 to 449. 
Chester County Bar, 470. 471. 476. 477. 

Divided, 193. 

First Court of, 70. 
^^ Records of, i6. 48. 49. ^ 

Seal, 66. 



INDEX. 



521 



Chester County, Trefisurers of, 47S. 
Cabins of Logs, 38. 39. 40. 
Caldwell, 338. 
Calvary Church, 459. 460. 
Camp Meetings, 415. 416. 417. 
Canal, Leipers, 237 to 242. 
Canals in the U. S., 239. 242. 243. 
Capture of Cornwallis, 195. 
Carolus, Dr. Lars, 8. 9. 10. 11. 
Carter, name, 105. 
Cattle show, 503. 
Centennial Histories, 518. 
Census, 303. 

Changes in names, 18. 19. 
Chapman, Henry, 466. 467. 
Chalkley, Thomas, 456. 
Chariot, The, 225. 
Charlier, 46. Preface. 
Chichester, 83. 
Chew, Benjamin, 473. 
Children's Home, 453. 
Church of St. Luke's, 410. 411. 

of St. Paul's, 13. 113 to 134. 158. 517. 
of St. Martin's, 95 to loi. 
of St. Michael's, 412. 
of Immaculate Heart, 413. 
Churches at Chester, 410 to 415. 
Baptist, 414. 415. 509. 
Catholic, 412. 413. 
Metiiodist, 411. 412. 
Presbyterian, 413. 414. 510. 
Churchman, 327. 
Circus at Chester, 327. 
Clark, 106. 
Clarke, 293. 
Clay, Henry, 325. 326. 
Clayton, 102. 105. 107. Preface. 

Thomas J., 466. 468. 
Clement, 31. 
Clemson, 151. 
Clerks of the Court, 474. 
Clingan, William, 465. 466. 
Cloak, 269. 

Clyde family, 267. 268. Preface. 
Coates, 79. 
• Cock, (Cox) family, 462. 463. 
- Cochran family, 319 to 323. 

name of, 316. 517. 
,^ Cochran's Race Course, 502. 503. 
Columbia Hotel, 260. 261. 
Cold weather, 23. 425. 426. 
Collectors of Excise, 179. 

of Continental loan, 182. 
of clothincr, 182. 



Colored soldiers, 220. 391. 
Commissioners of Fisheries, 181. 
of Purchases, 181. 
of Forfeited Estates, 180 to 183. 
Committee of 1774, 174. 175. 
Communion service, St. Paul's, 13. 14. 
Constitutional Conventions, 475. 476. 
Continental money, 140. 
Congress, Members of, 327. 
Cope, Gilbert, 190. 248. 405. 479. 492. 
Copper mine, 418. 419. 
Cornbury, Lord, 41. 
Coroners, List of, 447. 
Court at Upland, 15. 16. 26. 29. 
Clei\ks, 474. 
at Chesfer, 70. 
of Equity, 77. 

Houses, 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 122. 193. 
House Bell, 122. 
Courts, Justices of the, 26. 195. 462 to 465. 
Officers of the, 48. 47'4;'477. 488. 
Proceedings of, 23. 29. 71 to 78. 83. 91. 

460 to 462. 
Records of the, 16. 48. "49. 
Justices of Provincial, 73. 74. 469. 
Petty Sessions, 74. 
County divided, 193. 

Lieutenants, 181. 
Sub-Lieutenants, 181. 
Cowen, 361. 
Cowpland, 188. 293. 

family, 175. 271 to 273. 
David, 273. 301. Preface. 
Certificate, 272. 
Craig, Rev. George, 99. 128. 
Cripple, Meaning of, 135. 
Crosby, The name of, 8. 9. 40. 48. 68. 71. 127- 
128. 143- 173- 243- 287. 316. 317. 
384. 401. Preface. 
David, Capt., 204. ' 
family, 203 to 218. 
Judge, 207. 208. 
House, 277. 
Mills, 57. 205. 

Pierce, 57. 210. 214. 215. 216. 243. 
Place, 8. 217. 
Robert P., 214. 
Quarries, 62. 

Residences, 40. 204. 208. 210. 
Sir John, 217. 218. 
Slaves of, 213. 
Crossley, 317. 

Crozier, 10. 128. 205. 229. 310. 492. 
Crozer family. 454. 455. 



522 



INDEX. 



Crozcr Theological Seminary, 454. 455. 
Cranston family, 103. 106. 108. 109. 1 10. 
Crime, Punishment of, 54. 183 to 1S7. 228. 
Culin, 127. 128. 153. 154. 204. 210. y/r/f/fA 

Damages by the British, 17S. 179. 
Dancing school, 302. 
Darby Library Co., 452. 

Rangers, 380. 
Darlington, Thomas, 259. 260. 

Edward, 362. 447. 474. 

Judge, 466. 467. 
Davis, name of, 250. 251. 478. 

family, 145 to 148. 
Dealers in Merchandize, 428. 
Death-warrant, 174. 
Death from joy, 195. 
Deaths, List of, 244 to 253. 
Decatur, Stephen, 214. 458. 459. 508. 
Decoration Day, 390. 
Dechert, 294. 295. 
Deed to Besk, 7. 
Deeds, Acknowledged, 71. 

Indian, 67. 
Deihl family, 212. 356. 357. 
Dclafield, 299. 
Delaware Breakwater, 62. 221, 297 to 301. 

Bay, 5. 
Delaware County Bar, 474. 475. 

Advocate, 226. 

Bank, 122. 222. Preface. 

Bible Society, 235. 236, 237. 

Census, 30^. 

Democrat, 225. 226. 

Formed, 193. 

Fencibles, 219. 220. 

Fusileers, 377. 

Guards, 379. 

Insurance Co., 359 to 365. 

Medical Society, 496 to 499. 

Mutual Insurance Co. 365. 366. 

Paper and Mail, 226. 

Republican, 225. 

Troop, 220. 221. 

Volunteers, 379. 
Delaware Mutual Safety Insurance Co., 359 

to 365- 
Delaware River, 5. 27. 350. 351. 
Delaware's title to the river, 27. 2S. 
Democratic Pilot, 226. 
Democrat and Pilot, 226. 
Dennis, 291. 292. 

Dejiuty Attorneys-General, 473. 474. 
I)esauf|ue family, 21 1. 



Descriptions of Chester, 165. 302 to 310. 

to 316. 488 to 492. 516. 517. 
Description of a Fox hunt, 511 to 514. 
De.shong, 245. 271. 293. 

family, 246. 354 to 359. 
Dial, Public, 91. 
Dick, Archy, Guards, 368. 393. 

family, 393 to 405. 

name of, 53. 407. 410. 
District Attorneys, 474. 
Doctors, List of, 495. 497. 
Doorkeeper of Congress, 195. 
Downing, Col., 53. 
Dress, Style of, 164. 426. 427. 

of early settlers, 39. 40. 
Du Puy, 32. 
Du Pont, 257. 279. 
Du Hamel, 144. 
Dutton, 247. 251. 

Record, 492. 
Dyall Post, 91. 125. 
Dyer family, 267. 

Early settlers, 7. 8. 9. 10. 37 to 41. 

Earthquakes, 163. 

Ear-marks, 47. 48. 

Edwards family, 264. 265. 

Edwards, Lt. Samuel, 388. 

Edgmont Avenue, 22. 350. 

Effinger, name of, 204. 

Effinger's fishery, 291. 422. 

Elections, 193. 196. 

Election certificate, 446. 

Engle, name of, 245. 256. 257. 320. 

family, 212. 261 to 266. 

Frederick, 387. 
Essex Plouse, 24. 25. 
Estates in England, 217. 

of Traitors, 188. 
Evans account, 62:^" 

^Oliver, 433. 
Evening Star, 226. 

News, 226. 
Execution of criminals, 183 to 187. 22S. 
Excise, List of payers of, 179. 180. 
Eyre family, 49 to 54. 267. 268. 

name of, 12. 47. 49. 246. Preface. 

Joshua P., 52. 246. 

William, 52. 246. 

]'"arr, 287. 

Farrer, 399. 401. ' 

Farley, 299. 

I'uirlandi, 131. 205. 206. 266. 



IN I) EX. 



Fashions, 164. 426. 427. 
Fayssoux, 243. 
F'encibles, 219. 220. 
Fenn, Jane, 82. 
Field, 196. 241. 

family, 295. 296. • 

Fifth Street, 22. 

Pa. Vols., (1776), 177. 
Filbert Street, 21. 
Finland, 67. 
Finch, 344. 
Fire buckets, 92. 277. 

Engines, 492. 

Protection from, 92. 
Fire ! F'ire ! says John Dyer, 277. 27S. 
Anthony Guyer, 493. 
F'irst Book printed, 229. 

Canals, 237 to 243. 

National Bank, 222. 

Railroads, 237 to 243. 

Settlers, 7. 8. 9. 10. 

Vessels built at, 503 to 506. 
Fisheries, 420 to 424. / 

Fishing Club, 422. 423. 
Fish, Prices of, 419. 421. 422. 
, Fitzpatrick, 183. 184. 
F'lavill, 267. 
Flickwir, 440. Preface. 
Floating bridge, 121. 
Floods, 351, 352. 
F'lower family, 436 to 445. Preface. 

name of, 229. 419. 
Flour Mills, 231. 310 to 313. 
Foreign estates, 217. 
F"oreman, George, 12. 
F'orfeited estates, 180. 
Forge in Ridley, 207. 208. 
F'ort at Chester, 4. 
F'orster, John M., 466. 46/. 
F'ourth Street, 22. 
Fox Chase, 172. 51 1 to 514. 
F"rancis, Tench, 473. 
FVazier, Robert, 275. 475. 
Free Street, 22. 
F'rench claims, 33. 438. 
Friends, Burying grounds, 55. 78. 79. 80. 

Courtship, 83. 

First meeting house, 66. 82. 

First meeting of, 24. 67. S3. 163. 

Marriage ), 83- 

Meeting-houses, 82. 83. 410. 

Meetings, 64. 83. 92. 
I'roi. Street, 22. 350. 

Futhev, J. Smith. 48. 180. 471. 
07 



Futliey. Preface. 

Galvin, 289. 

Game, Wild, 61. 419. 420. 424. 425. 

Gardiner, 385. Preface. 

Gartside rifles, 391. 

Gerhard, 279. 

Ga,skill family, 79. 

Gas-works, 418. 

Gill's tavern, 261. 

Gideon's Band, 378. 

Gilpin, 283. 511. 

Glen Mills, 232. 

Globe Inn, 277. 

Goodson, 495. 

Golden wedding, 259. 260. 

Graham family, 56. 166 to 171. 

name of, 36. 55. 193. 277. 465. 466. 
Grand Army of the Republic, 389. 390. 

Jury, 48, 49. 
Granary, The old, 90. 
Grant's rocks, 291. 

Granthum family, 290 to 293. Preface. 
Grantum, Charles, 290, tiofe. 
Gratz, 401. 
Gray, 357. 

family, 499. 
Gray's ferry, 121. 
Graveyards, 55. 78. 79. 80. 
Gravestones, 78. 79. 
Green, The, 35. 88. 89. 157. 
Green-bank, 34. 87. 
Griffin, The ship, 25. 
Growdon, Joseph, 73. 74. 

Joseph, Jr., 472. 
Growden, 81. 82, 
j Grubb, 23. 99. loi. 375. ^ 
I Guards, The Delaware County, 379. 
Gunning on the Delaware, 424. 425. 
Gypsies, 511. 

Hand, 360. 

Hail-storms, 352. 353. 

Haines, Townsend, 4' . 447. 466. 467. 

Hall, Peter Penn-Gaskill, 79. 

Rev. RichardD.,66. 114. 115. 128. 305. 
Hall's description of Chester, 305 to 310. 
Hallow E'en, 511. 
Hamilton, Andrew, 472. 
Hannmii, 118. 125. 126. 183. 192. 212. 
Hanley Hose Co., 492. 
Hard family, 296. 297. 
Harlan, 143, 187. 
Harding, Cieorge, 405. 



521 



INDEX. 



Harrison family, 211. 
Hailranft Rifles, 391. 
Harvest-homes, 506 to 508. 
Hawes family, 173. 212. 213. 
Heckeweider, 413. 
Heckewelder's Indian names, 3. 
Health of Chester, 244. 
Heap family, 86. 87. 

name of, 382. 383. 
Hemphill family, 211. 
Henderson, 152. 
Henry Clay, 325. 326. 
Herald, The Chester, 225. 
Hewes, 213. 

family, 317. 405 to 407. 
Hewlings family, 18. 
Hicl-'man, 41. 
Hill family, 131. 173. 213. 384. 499. 

John F.,38. 61. 246.293. 297. 298. 319. 
324. 502. 

Peter, 141. 146. 293. 
Hinkson, 222. 253. 
Historic Tales, 418. 419. 
Historical Collections of Chester County, 190. 

191.470. 471.478. 
Holcomb, 31. 

Hollingsworth, 489. 501. Preface. 
Holme's Map, q. 
Holme, 501. 
Holmes, 211. 
Hoops, 164. 

Hope's Anchor Tavern, 273. 
Horses, 317. 318. 
Horse-blocks, 318. 
Hoskins family, 54 to 56. 

name, 82. 267. 279. 
Home, 385. 509. 
Hotels, 260 to 280.- 
House of Defence, 15. 19. 67. 82. 114. 
Houses of early settlers, 38. 39. 40. 41. 
Howard family, 30. ' 

Howell, name, 102. 103. 
Howes family, 261. 
Hubbell family, 444. 445. 
Huddell family, 32. 
Humphreys, 249. 
Humphrey's family, 388. 
Humes family, 294. 295. 
Hunters, The Jolly, 172. 
Hutchinson, 317. 
Hyatt's Military Academy, 493. 

Independence, Declaration of, 138 to 140. 
Preface. 



Independent Artillery Co., 335. 
Independent, The, 226. 
Indian Deeds, 6. 

Names, 3. 5. 

Settlement, 5. 

Treaties, 6. 53. 

Summer, 329. 485. 486. 
Indians, 5. 41. 
Inscriptions on Tombs, 13. 98. loi. 122. 

130. 131. 273. 293. 337. 
Iron forge on Crum Creek, 207. 208. 
Irwin family, 271 to 276. 
Irwin's Tavern, 271 to 276. 
Irvine family, 243. 
Irvine, 274. 275. 393. 
Island, Chester, 196. 
Ivy Mills, 231. 

Jacques' Quany, 268. 
Jackson family, 130. 

name, 127. 129. 495. 
James' first attempt, 107. 
James, 271. 288. 

Street, 22. 

Rev. Isaac, 251. 252. 
Jansen, 155. 156. 
Japanese Embassy, 434. 435. 
Jenks, 250. 

Johnson family, 155 to 157. 
Johnson, 321. 
Jolly Hunters, 172. 
Jordan burial ground, 79. 
Judges, County Court, 465. 466. 

Provincial Court, 73. 74. 469. 
■Judicial joke, 195. 
Jury, Grand, 48. 49. 

of wt)men, 54. 
Juries, 16. 29. 54. 71. 
Justices, 15. 29. 54. 195. 462 to 465. 
Justis family, 145. 146. Preface. 

name of, 257. 260. 327. 

Kalm, Peter, 165. 207. 
Kane family, 240. 241. 243. 

John K., 238. 
Keepers of Taverns, 121. 165. 166. 
Keppele family, 354. 355. 357. 
Kerlin family, 266. 

name of, 121. 267. 356. 358. 
Keith, Rev. George, 116. 117. 
King of Jerusalem, 285. 
King's highway, 91. 

loatl, 55- 57- 50- 91- 491- 
Kinsey, John. 473. 



INDEX. 



525 



Kneass, Strickland, 335. 337. 
Kurtz, Col. John I)., 300. 

Lists of aged people, 244 to 253. 

Arrivals, 23. 25. 68. 69. 70. 81. 
Associators, 164. 165. 
Attorneys-General, 472. 
Collectors of Excise, 179. 181. 

Loan, 182. 
Committee (1774), 174. 175. 
Coroners, 447. 
Doctors, 495. 497. 
Dealers in merchandize, 428. 
Delegate to Convention of 1776. 182. 
Directors of Del. M. S. Ins. Co., 361. 
Deputy Attorneys- General, 475. 
Deaths, 244 to 253. 
Judges, 465. 466. 469. 
Justices, 15. 29. 54. 195. 462 to 465. 
Members of Assembly, 446. 
Council, 301. 
Congress, 447. 
the Bar, 470 to 477. 
Ministers, 95, 96. 128. 
Members of the Bible Society, 236. 237. 
Members No. 69, A. Y. M., 197. 198. 
236, F. & A. M., 199. 
352, F. & A. M., 200. 
of Supreme Council, 180. 
Officers of Banks, 222. 
Old Lawyers, 470. 
residents, 259. 
Paymasters, 181. 

Persons paying Excise, 179. l8o. 
Provincial Conference, 182. 
Delegates, 182. 
Deputies, 182. 
Recorders of Deeds, 475. 
Registers of Wills, 475. 
Regular Officers, 382. 383. 
Revolutionary soldiers, 177. 

County officials, 179 to 183. 
Sherifis, 475. 

Soldiers, 219, 220. Preface. 
Swedish settlers, 17. 18. 
Swedes to Oath, 14. 
Tavern-keepers, 121. 165. 166. 
Taxables, 15. 95. 159. 
Treasurers of Library Co. ,451. 
Vestrymen, loi. 124 to 127. 
\'olunteers, 367 to 393. 
Labbe, 302. 

Ladies' fashions, 426. 427. 428. 
Ladomus family, 486. 487. 



Ladomus, name, 246. 256. 262. 321. 
La Fayette at Brandywme, 255. 

at Bethlehem, 255. 

at Chester, 254 to 259. -''" ^ 

at New Castle, 257. 

Resolution of Congress, 258. 259. 

Supper to, 506. 

Watch, 258. 

at Wilmington, 257. 
Lament of Chester, 192. 
Lamokin, 25. 438. 443. 
Lammas flood, 351. 352. 
Lane, name of, 39. 
Land titles, 6, 29. 
Landing place of Penn, 24. 25. 
Larkin, name of, 151. 278. 301. 
Lawler, 43. 
Laws, 271. 

Lawyers, list of, 470 to 477. 
Lazaretto, 154. 
Learson, 15. 17. Preface. 
Leiper family, 240 to 244. 

Canal, 237 to 242. 

name, 211. 216. 229. 235. 237. 251. 
270. 392. 393. 400. 499. 

Quarries, 297. 298. 

Railroad, 237 to 243. 
Leiperville, 213. 239. 
Lenni Mills, 41. 234. 235. 
Letts. 252. 

Letter of Mahlon Stacey, 419. 420. 
Lewis' account, 40. 

History, 114. 190. 

Mills, 492. 
Libraries, 91. 449 to 452. 
Life in New Sweden, 488. 
Lines of Stages, 194. 266. 
Lodge, Dr. John W., 256. 478. 
Lodges, 196 to 201. 
Logan, 35. 

papers, 59. 80. 
Log Cabins, 38. 39. 
Lloyd, 48. 81. 82. 88. 89. 158. 

David, death, 82. 

Grace, her Will, 80. 81. 

Hugh, 469. 

Mansion, 34. 81. 83. 
Lombaert, 320. 321. 337. 338. 
Long Island, battle of, 177. 
Lotteries, 100. 104. 
Love Lane, 22. 
Lownes, 212. Preface. 

family, 494. 495. 
Ludwick, 210. 



■32(i 



INDEX. 



Lyon, Gen. Nathaniel, 398 lu 40J. 
Lytle family. 343- 344- 

.M.ickensie, 274. 275. 27O. 
Miuldnck, 145. 211. 495. 510. 
Ma.o;aw. 177. 

McDowell, 30. 2S9. Prefao:. 
Mcllvaine family, 143. 144, 264. 316 to 31S. 
Caslle, 317. 
Howard, 143. 373. 
Mills, 239. 240. 
name, 209. 211. 405, 517. 
McKcevei, 31. 
Mcl.ane, Col., 257. 25cS, 
McMullin family, 507. 
McWilliams, 31'. 

Mahlon Stacey's letter, 419. 420.. 
Main Street, 22. 
Malin, 266. 

Manufactories, 228 to 235. 
■Marcus Hook, 7. 8. 67. 83. 92 to no. 165. 175. 
name changed, 95. 
Original owners of land, 7. 8. 
Origin of name of, 67. 
Piers, 94. 
Petition, 93. 
Plan of, 107. 
Taxahles, 95. 
Troojih at, 175. 
Market House, 91. 

Street, 22. 91. 
Markliam, Gov., 23. 26. 
Marshall, loi. 103. 104. 105. 141. 151. 
Marriages, 83. 492. 
Mari.i, 162. 248. 260. 
Marston, 231. 

Marten Birds and roost, 4S2. 4S3. 
Martin, 9. 41. 48. 68. 70. 82. 250. 316. 317. 

482. 496. Preface. 
Martin family, 328 to 337. 363 to 365. 

J)r. William, 62. 127. 158. 194. 195. 

196. 198. 200. 202. 203. 249. 495. 
Dr. Ernest D., 216. 336. 337. 
Jane, 188, 189. Preface. 
Waller, 68. 70. 96 to 108. Preface. 
Waller, Jr., io2. 103. 
William, 92. 169. 222. 229. 234. 235. 
287. 297. 298. 359. 
Masscy, 249. 
Masonic Lodges, 196 to 200. 

Punch Bowl, 200. Preface. 
Mason and Dixon's Line, 32. 
Mather lOml), 130. 



Mather, 120. 127. 171. 267. 293. 355. 35O. 

Maxwell family, 260. 261. 

Mayors of Chester, 301. 

Mayne family, 274 to 276. 

Mechanic Rifles, 377. 

Mechanics' Reading Room, 487. 

Medical Society, 496 to 499. 

Media, 160. 161. 

Meetings of Friends, 24. 64. 67. 83. 92. 

Members of Assembly, 446. 

Congress, 446. 447. 

Supreme Executive Council, 180. 181. 

the Bar, 470 to 477. 
Mendenhall family, 70. 247. 248. 372. 
Merchandize, Dealers in, 428. 
Merion Cricket Club, 487. 488. 
Methodist Churches, 411. 412. 
Mifflin Guards, 218. 219. 
Miles, Col. Samuel, 176. 177. 180. 
Militia, 218 to 222. 375 to 382. 391. 392. 
Military Academy, 493. 

Records, 175 to 188, 218 to 222. 366 

to 393- 
Miller, George, 4S1. 482. 
Miller, 30. 213. 

Mill-Seats, 149. 150. 152. 228 to 235. 
Ministers, lists of, 95. 96. 128. 129. 
Minshall, 45. Preface. 
Moore, Wm., 463. 

Dr. Nicholas, 469. 
Moran, 316. 

Morgan's Battalion, 177. 
Morton family, 134 to 153. 



Anneslev, t, 



Erasmus, 151. 
Gun, 87. 
Monument, 134. 
Morton Rifle, Co., 3^ 
Mortcnson, 18. 135. 



Name, 8. 18. 87. 127 
375. 463. 495. Preface. 

Sketchley, Jr., 144. 370. 
Moravians at Marcus Hook, 119. 
Moravian grave-stones, 79. 
Morris, 252. Preface. 
Morris' Ferry, 39. 
Mounting Ijlocks, 318. 
Moyamensing Hook and Ladder ( 
Munday, name of, 12. 
Munday's Run, 316. 
Mural Tablet, (Sandelands,) 13. 
Music in Bethlehem, 335. 
Myers, 275. 270. 



5. 137. 14S to 
78. 212. 317. 



INDEX. 



527 



Naaman's Creek, b/. 
Names of Streets, 21. 22. 
National Hotel, 261 to 264. 

Banks, 122. 222. 
Nayle, 126. 
Nazareth Hall, 388. 
Negro, name of, 81. 
Negroes' burial place, 80. 
Negro Soldiers, 220. 391. 
Negi-oland, 81. 

Neidermarke, 141. 143. 154. Preface. 
New Castle, 27. 

La Fayette at, 257. 
•Newlin, 549. 
Newspapers, 224 to 227. 
Nill, James, 466. 467. 
Noblit family, 249. 
■Normal School, 454. 
Norris family, 36. 37. 
Nursery at Bethlehem, 453. 454, 

Oath of Swedes, 14. 
Odenheimer, 128. 269. 

family, 354 to 359. 
Officers, Revolutionary, 175 to 1 82, 

Volunteers, 368 to 375. 

Regulars, 382. 383. 
Ogden, 483. 
Old Advertisements, 189. 194. 

Assembly House, 66. 163. 

Bell of St. Pauls, 13. 14. 122. 

Front Street, 350. 

Horses, 317. 318. 

Inhabitants, 244 to 253. 

Jail, 432. 

Newspapers, 224 to 227. 

Schoolmasters, 338. 340 to 344. 

.Scott's Fire, 277. 511. 

Times, 318. 319. 

Vane, Chester Mill, 91. 

Vessels, 503. 504. 

York Pateats, 8. 9. 
( )perationi5, British, 175 to 179. 181. 
Ottey family, 319. 
()ur Winter Birds, 483. 484. 485. 
Owen, name, 213. 

Dr. Joshua, 213. 244. 246. 
Owl, The, 225. 
Oxford Guards, 391. 
Oyster Supper, 419. 

Pacific Dramatic Association, 452. 
Painter family, 509. 
Paper Mills. 230 to 235. 



Paper for use of Government, 233. 234. 
Pappegoya, Mrs., 24. 259. 463. Preface. 
Park, Chester, Association, 478. 479. 

Ridley, 509. 
Parker family, 34. 35. 
Parry, 180. 
Paschal 1, 141. 
Patterson family, 241. 243. ' 

Gen. Robert, 235. 384. 432. 433. 
Paymasters, 181. 
Pearson family, 132. 

name, 62. 63. 224. 
Pea Patch case, 27. 
Peacemakers, 71. 
Pearce family, 144. 

James A., 300. 395. 396. 402. 
Peirce, 150. 305. 346. 

family, 281. 282. 285. 286. 
Pent House, 277. 
Penn, Arrival of, 24. 62. 63. no. in. 

Attends Court at Chester, 49. 

at New Castle, 27. 

John, arrival of, 159. 

Landing of, 25. 63. 

Letter of, 67. 

Mutual Life Ins. Co., 365. 

Papers, 313. 

Thomas, 159. 

Treaty Tree, 53. 
Penn-Gaskill, 79. 503. 
Pennock, 385. 
Peiin's Division of the Province, 66. 

First Assembly, 66.67. 

Great Code of Laws, 66. 

Manor, 54. 

Personal appearance, in. 

Partners, 311. 312. 

Picture of, 267. 

Place of burial, 79. 

Treaty with Indians, 54. 250. 

Style of Dress, in. 

Weather Vane, 91. 310. 311. 

William, Low Counties, 488 to 492. 
Pennsylvania Arms Hotel, 56. 267. 

Artillerists, 221. 222. 287. 

Iron Works, 431. 

Military Academy, 493. 

Journal, 493. 494. 

Volunteers, 366 to 382. 
Pennell, 205. 261. 
Pennell's Tavern, 271. 
Petitions, 59. 60. 61. 88. 89. 90. 93. 266. 
Philadelphia, B. & W. Railroad, 337. 33S. 
Phipps, 149. 150. 209. 210. 



528 



NDEX. 



I'liysicians, list of, 495. 497. 
Piers at Chester, 45. 222. 223. 
Pierson, 499 to 502. 

Marcus Hook, 94. 
Pile, name of, 54, 102. 
Pillory at Chester, 78. 
Pilot, The Democratic, 226. 
Piper family, 267. 269. 358. 359. 
Plan of Marcus Hook, 107. 
Plupimer Meeting House, 510. 
Population of Chester, 303. 
Porter family, 85. 86. 87. 

mansion, 123. 

name, 246. 294. 295. 382. 383. 385. 386. 
387. 456. 495. 508. 
Post Boy, 224. 

Dial, 91. 125. 

The Whipping, 21. 83. 84. 

Wilde, 389. 390. 
Pottsville, origin of name of, 518. 
Presbyterian Churches, 413.414. 510. 
Price family, 263. 

name, 84. 142. 150. 267. 277. 
Prices of Game and Fish, 419. 422. 
I'rinl/',, 4. 24. 308. 461 to 463. Preface. 

Hall, 154. 
Printzdorp, 24. 
Prisscr's kill, 88. 

Proceedings of Court, 23. 29. 71 to 78. 83. 91. 
Provincial Court, 73. 74. 469. 

Conferees, 182. 

Deputies, 182. 

Delegates, 182. 

Fleet, 175. 181. 

Lawyers, 470. 
Provisions, 419 to 425. 

Prothonotaries of Chester County, 477. 478. 
Public Dial, 91. 

Pound, 158. 

Press, 227. 

Schools, 338 to 350. 514 to 516. 
Origin of, 347. 348. 
Punishments, 54. 78. 83. 84. 
Purchasers of land, 68. 

''"^^y>5- 53- 55- 246. 311- 
I'yle, 5, 54. 102. 141. 

ijuaker ]5urial grounds, 55. 78. 79. 80. 

-Meeting Houses, 66. 82. 83. 

Meetings, 24. 64. 67. 83. 92. 

Origin of name, 83. 
<^)uarries, 62. 221. 297 to 301. 
( hieeu .\nnie, 13. 14. 

<'liristina, 7. 



Queen, Walter, 213. 
Queen's Road, 59. 491. 509. 
Quinn, David, 387. 

Race-course, 502. 

Horses, 502. 503. 
Races at Chester, 228. 502. 
Raborg, 212. 213. 
Railroad, P. B. & W.,337. 
Rail Shooting, 424. 
Raine, Preface. 
Read, Wm. T., 257. 25S. 
Rebellion, attempt to capture Arsenal at St. 

Louis, 397 to 402. 
Recorders of Deeds, 475. 
Records of Upland Court, 154. 460. 461. 

Military, 177. 180. 181. 182.21810222. 
366 to 393. 
Redemptioners, 190. 191. 
Registers of Wills, 475. 
Registry of Arrivals, 68. 69. 70. 81. 
Reilly family, 50. 

Removal of Courts, 191. 192. 193. 353. 354. 
Report on Mill- seats, 228 to 234. 
Representatives in Congress, 446. 447. 
Residents, old, 259. 
Retailers of Mdze., 302. 310. 428. 
Revolutionary Committee, 174. 175. 

Damages, 178. 179. 

Officers, 164. 165. 175. 176. 177. 180. 
181. 182. 188. 
Richards family, 288 to 290. 

name, 68. 70. 211. 
Richardson, 213. 

family, 172. 173. 
I'lide, A perilous, 386. 
Riddle, 246. 

Ridgely, 96. 128. 495. 497. 
Ridley, name changed, 213. 

Park, 509. 

Public School, 510. 

School, 338 to 342. 
Riots, 221. 222. 
Risley, 292. 

Rise and Progress of Chester, 428 to 434. 
Roach, John, 435. 436. 
Roads, 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 72. 266. 
Roberts family, 282. 

Robinson, 170. 171. 173. 213. 214. 246. 
Roebuck, British frigate, 175. 
Ross, John, 466. 467. 

Saint A.sbury's Chapel, 411. 

Luke's Church, 410. 411. 



INDEX. 



529 



Saint Martin's Church, 95 to loi. 
summer, 329. 

Michael's, church, 412. 

Paul's, church, 113 to 134. 158. 
Graveyard, 133. 155. 158. 
List of interments, 131. 
Old plan of, 133. 
Vestrymen, 123. 124. 125. 127. 
Salkeld, 35. 45- 
Sandilands, 9. 12. 13. 15. 
Sayres family, 288. 290:" 294. Preface. 

name, 12. 204, 211. 291. 293. 488. 
Seals of Counties, 66. 
Sergeant, 27. 279. 
Serrill, 360. 361. 507. 
Settlers at Chester, 7. 8. 9. 10. 
Seven Stars, 478. 
School Houses, 54. 55. 
Scott's Oyster Saloon, 277. 
Scrub-races, 502. 
Shad Fishing, 420. 421. 422. 
Shakespeare Dramatic Association, 452. 
Sharpless, 131. 

family, 43. 65. 
vShaw, 311. 

family, 43. 131. 132. 
Shells, a shower of, 449. 
Sheriffs of Delaware Co., 475. 
Ship-yards, 428 to 436. 
Shrigley, 258. 
Shute, 458. Foot note, 459. 
Silk Culture, 171. 172. 
Simmons, 256. 478. 
Sketches of Lehigh Valley, 243. 
Sketchley, 126. 138. 152. 
Slaves, 189, 190. 
Sleigh ride on ice, 386. 
Slifer Phalan.\-, 380. 
Smedley, 253. 
Smith, Aubrey H., 154. 

Capt. Frank, 95. 96. 

families, 33. 34. 154. 

Joseph W., 234. 235. 331. 

Richard S., 455 to 460. 
Soldiers, 177. 219. 220. 335. 366 to 382. 
Soldiers' Monument, 392. 
Soul Drivers, 190. 
Speakman, 269. 
Sporting Hall, 507. 508. 
Stacey family, 41 to 47. 

Mahlon's letter, 419. 420. 
Stage Lines, 194. 266. 
Steamboat Hotel, 276. 277. 
Steamboats on the Delaware, 286. 287. 328. 



Steele, 282. 338. 

Steuben, Baron de, 342. 343. 

Stille family, 510. 

Stillen's Land, 510. 

Street washed away, 350. 

Streets of Chester, 21. 22. 87. 88. 91. 350. 

Stone family, 282. 283. 

quarries, 62. 
Sturgeon catching, 423. 424. 
Supreme Provincial Court, 73. 74. 469. 
Swans, 424. 
Swedes, Dress, 39. 40. 

First arrivals, 5. 

Houses, 38. 40. 
Swedish Mill, 150. 

Settlers, 37. 
Swimming place, 387. 

Talbot, Rev. M. R., 128. 129. 509. 

Tate, Preface. 

Tavern-keepers, 165. 166. 280. 

Taverns, 56. 260 to 280. 

Taxables, 15. 95. 159, 

Taylor, 69. 141. 150. 243. 246. Preface 

family, 30. 31. 154. 159 to 163. 
The Chester rocks, 387. 

Daily Times, 227. 

Granary, 90. 

Green, 35. 88. 89. 

Passing Bell, 123. 

Public Press, 227. 
Terrance, 213. 
Terril, 128. 152. 357. 
Test, 7. 
Thomas, 243. 290.. 

family, 247. 248. ~ " 
Thomson, Preface. 
Thompson, 177. 275. 
Thurlow, 245. 267. 

family, 506. 507. 

Tavern, 261. 262. 263. . 
Tiers, Rosalie, 53. 
Tinicum, 154. 
Titles to land, 6. 29. 
Tomb of Judge Cowpland, 273. 
Tombstone inscriptions, 13.98. loi. 122. 129. 

130. 131. 273. 293. 337. 
Town Hall, 21. 22. 91. 92. 
Townsend's letter, 420. 
Trainer, 485. 
Treasurers of Library Co., 451. 

of Chester County, 478. 

of Delaware County, 478. 
Treaty Tree, Penn's, 53. 



:',{) 






INDEX. 



Tiimljlo launly, 292. 
Truxton, 264. 

family, 508. 509. 
Tyler family, 173. 174. 

Ulvich family, 278. 279. 

J)r. William, 495, 497. 498. 

Samuel, 279. 
Upland, 3. 4. 26. 

change of name, 63. 64. 499. 500. 

New, 310. 

Record, 154. 

Union, 224. 327. 328. 

Volunteers, 380. 
L'nion l>lues, 366. 367. 

Vandyke, 257. 

Vane of Chester Mills, 92. 310. 311. 

Van Leer, 252. 324. 

Van Luveney, Preface. 

V'ernon, 54. 127. 130. 163. 250. Preface. 

family, 293. 294. 
A'estrymen of St. Paul's, 124 to 127. 
Visit of La Fayette to Chester, 255 to 257. 
Volunteers, 177. 219. 220. 235. 366 to 392. 
Vote on tiie Declaration, 138 to 140. Preface. 

Wade, 24. 25. 64. 67. 
Wagon -masters, 181. 182. 
Waite, 299. 
Wales, 283. 

Wallingford Mills, 492. 
Walking-purchase, 6. 
Walter, Capt. P. P., 220. 

Y. S., 244. 446. 
Ward, Artemus, 280. 

William, 279. 447. 491. 
Washington, 194. 228. 395. 

Addresses to, 194. 202. 

at Chester, 178. 255. 

Grays, 256. 

House, 267. 
Washington's death, 395. 
Water Works, 447 to 449. 
Watson's Historic Tales, 418. 419. 



Way, 221. 267. 

Weekly Visitor, 225. 

Welcome's arrival, 62. 

Welcome, Errors in .list, 63. 

Welsh family, 32. 33. 34. loi. 102. 105. 

Street, 22. 55. 
West, 5. 131. 251. 267. 289. 
Weyman, 45. 
Whelen, 211. 426. 
Whildin, 287. 
WhippingPost, 21. 83. 84. 
White Swan Lin, 273. 

Tom, 511. 
Wild Game, 61. 419 to 425. 
Wilde, Post, 389. 390. 391. 
Width of the Delaware, 351. 
Williams, Joseph, 224. 225. 
Williamson, 102. 103. Preface. 
Willcox family, 229. 231. 232. 

name, 375. 376. 456. Preface. 

Paper Mill, 231 to 234. 492. 
Wilmington, 5. 
Wilson, 31. 185 to 187. 

Judge Bird, 466. 

Elizabeth, 185. 
Winter Birds, 483 to 485. 
j Winters, Cold, 425. 426. 483. 484. 
Withey, 127. 260. 
Woman's Dress, 426. 427. 

Hoops, 163. 164. 
Women, Jury of, 54. 
Work Street, 22. 
Worley, 159. 
Worrall family, 324. 325. 
Worth, 141. 
Wright family, 144. 

Yarnall, 378. 

Yeates, Jasper, 12. 89. 90. 
YelloM' Fever, 158. 
York Patents, 8. 9. 

Zeilin family, 269 to 271. 

name, 221. 222. 287. 288. 32S. 
(ienerai, 269. 




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